Electrifying Everything: The Solution To Climate Change
Renewable energy is all the talk today; and for very good reason. Renewable energy is becoming very cheap and very popular very quickly. But we sometimes forget that electricity is only part of the climate change fight.
So as a solution to this, it has been widely proposed that we electrify everything. How would that look? Well, let's see...
Vehicles
Vehicles are the most obvious, and the electrification is well underway. Electric vehicles have gained an approximately 1% market share, but that's expanding fast. The launch of the Tesla Model 3 should propel electric vehicles into mainstream success. Over the next 3 to 4 years, dozens of long-range EV's should come to market from the large automakers.
Approximately 16% of all energy is consumed by vehicles. If you include semi-trucks, you include an extra 6.4%. Semi-trucks are already well underway to electrification. Cummins, Tesla, and Man all have electric semi-trucks ready to hit the highways soon. BYD already had some short-range haulers available and in use. Lower operating costs mean going electric is a very large incentive for the trucking industry.
Airplanes
Aircraft represent about 2.2% of total energy usage. Electrifying them, although a challenge, is very possible. Some very small aircraft are already working and even for sale fully electric. Larger and longer range aircraft will be the challenge, although they are expected to arrive eventually.
Pictured above is Zunum Aero, a company planning to produce electric aircraft capable of regional travel with a capacity of between 10 and 50 people. The company is backed by JetBlue and Boeing. Their first prototype should hit the skies around 2019/2020.
Cargo Ships
Cargo ships may surprise some, including me, but it's already happening. Pictured below is the world's first electric cargo ship, built for Yara International. The electric cargo ship will haul goods up and down the coast for the chemical company, saving over 100 diesel truck trips per day. It will also be more economical for the company.
It could be a little longer before we see cargo ships hauling loads across the ocean, but electrifying the cargo industry is a very real possibility. Roughly 1% of all energy is used by boats and ships.
Cars are the easiest since they have the "shortest" life cycle. The average car in the US is 10 years old. When you start getting into trucks and planes, those life cycles before replacement is 20-30 years. Hence anything replaced in the last 5 years will not be on the replacement list for a long time. Of course, the tech for these two segments really doesnt exist today.
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It will be interesting to see how the economic viability of a lot of these technologies evolves in the coming years. Btw, I am a curator with @ocd and would love to nominate your post for consideration.
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Hope to hear from you soon!
Wow! That'd be awesome. Anything I'd have to do for the nomination?
Nope, I will be nominating your post today for consideration in tomorrows ocd post!
I desperately want a Tesla Model 3 :) We need to figure out a better way to dispose of our trash. I started a vermicomposting bin, and have roughly 1100 worms that eat 30% of our waste; the rest gets recycled or returned. Landfills account for around 15% of the total methane emissions in 2015. We can get it figured out as soon as we can talk about it ;) Thank you for sharing the information, @raptorman!
Best,
Mo
Info source: https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas
All great points! I'm glad your taking the steps yourself!