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this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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The grid issues are not really that significant. You are correct that we would not be able to do it if things changed immediately. We would need another 800-1000 GW of power generation (an extra 15-20%). But it is not going to happen overnight. Cars last a pretty damn long time. Even if we hit 100% of new cars being B/PH EV in 2035, only about 13% of cars on the road will be EV at that point. It would take another couple of decades for those to be phased out. So this is more problem over the span of three to four decades to increase our grid capacity by 15-20% which is absolutely doable. It can actually result in a more stable grid if vehicle to grid becomes anything close to the norm.
I brought up range and charging speeds because that is what most people worry about. That is almost certainly due to their current mindset from using ICE vehicles where they go to a station to charge. But yes, that was more generalized info and not geared towards your points.
ICE vehicles are about 25-30% energy efficient. FCEV vehicles are a little under 40% while BEVs are about 80% efficient. . So FCEVs are slightly more energy efficient than ICE but a far cry from a BEV.
I did forget one other issue with BEVs that needs to be fixed: they are insanely heavy. That can take quite a toll on roads. This can be solved a couple of ways. The easiest way would be by not buying fucking massive SUVs and trucks that are not needed for the vast majority of trips. A commuter car used to be a thing. Speaking of commute, that brings us to number two. A commuter car does not need 300 miles of range. Small cars with 100-150 mile range are absolutely fine for 99% of trips. The last way would be to use solid state batteries since they can be much lighter for the same range.
But switching to EV will not get us even close to where we need to be for emissions because whole they may produce 80% fewer emissions over the vehicle's lifespan, consumer vehicles only make up less than a third of emissions. Public transportation and biking infrastructure could be massively improved and help a hell of a lot more. Then we need to work on trucking, flight, and energy production.
You're forgetting that we also need to work on global shipping. It's a massive contributor to global emissions.
This is bluntly the place where I think we need fuel cells. Yes, they're less efficient, but they can produce a significant amount of power for a significant amount of time given how much space is usually allocated on shipping vessels for the engine and fuel reserves.
I'm not talking about your mom and dad's little motor boat, I'm talking about freight liners. They run basically 24/7 while on the water and consume more fuel daily than your average coal rolling F350 owner would in a year.
Since it would be done in a more controlled commercial context, safeguards can be put in place that other vehicles wouldn't be able to have. Regular inspections of the safety equipment and testing of the storage and energy systems would be almost trivial to implement.
Honestly, I understand why this isn't in the news, but why isn't anyone else talking about this?
Global shipping is probably not talked about much because it is extremely tough to push any standards. It took forever to get an agreement to stop using the horribly toxic sludge they used to use in international waters. You are right though. It is 100% something that needs to be focused on and fuel cells would help a fuckton in that area. Sure they are not as energy efficient as BEVs but they are a ton better than the garbage fuel cargo ships currently use.