Why melting glaciers means cleaner, cheaper cars.
Paul Gilding
When we focus on the bad news on the environmental, of which there’s no shortage, we forget just how exciting the opportunities are in fixing them. So whenever you see another story about melting icecaps or raging floods you can take some comfort in knowing each one brings a smarter, cleaner world closer. My favourite example at the moment is electric cars. While they had a bad start we are now on the verge of the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for, with 30 models coming into the market from the major auto companies and new start-ups over the next 3 years.
If we get this right, it’s hard to overstate the significance of the upside. This is real game changer for our transport and energy systems. Forget any old ideas you have about niche markets, limited range and slow cars. There are some very exciting cars on the way and some business concepts that could change not just personal transport but the whole electricity sector.
Imagine for example not charging your car overnight, but pulling into a “battery change station” where a machine simply takes out your battery pack and replaces it with a fully charged one, all in a few minutes, while you go and pick up a drink. The batteries will have been charged by 100% renewable energy and you will have a contract that guarantee the price you pay, so no more fears of petrol price rises. That’s the vision now being implemented by the very well funded Better Place and its founder Shai Aggasi as you can read here.
But it gets even better. You will also be able to have a car that plugs into the grid when you’re not driving it. This means when the power is cheap because demand is low you will be able to charge your car and when there is high demand and power is expensive you can sell it back to the grid and make a profit. So your car becomes a power station and you become a mini power company! An additional benefit of this is that the car fleet acts as a giant battery, enabling storage of intermittent renewables like solar PV and wind power.
By the way, they are also cheaper to run! If you want the details on all this take a look at this excellent summary by Andrew Simpson from Curtin University.
If you’re worried these electric cars won’t be fun vehicles then take a look at Tesla Motors who are producing the Tesla Roadster that will go from 0 – 100kh/h in 4 seconds. Who said greenies don’t know how to have fun!
This is all in addition to the clean cites, no air pollution and the countless new jobs created as we build the infrastructure for this transport and energy revolution. So next time you read about a melting glacier, also remember the exciting world we’re going to build in response.
How is this Updated?
This sounds really ingenious. Can’t wait for these cars to hit the road. Especially in the busy city streets like Sydney and London at peak hour, it should help clean the air.
Thanks Paul.
how about wind energy, the roof of our building would be ideal as it is high enough the noise would not be a factor and it does blow a gale up there?
With all the doom and gloom the media reports daily about the adverse effects of climate change and global warming, it’s not often that people think of how this could lead to innovations that will benefit not only our generation but those to come. Thanks for the interesting thoughts Paul.