The other day there was an advertisement on TV promoting a perfect world with everyone driving electric cars in California, and I must say it was an excellent PR piece with clear blue skies over Los Angeles and little Smart like Cars cruising without traffic down the freeway. Such a nice scene, but is it a plausible or potential eventuality? I say no, and let me explain why.
First, off we can't go all electric, as we already have brown outs and rolling blackouts in CA in the summer time due to air-conditioning usage. If everyone was charging up their cars, we simply do not have that much power on the grid. Besides the transmission lines in the country could use another 700 billion, some say a trillion dollar upgrade, as it is.
Where is that infrastructure money coming from? In the Public Relations piece it showed wind turbines as part of the scene, which if you really think about it is quite laughable – forget wind; that will never happen. Why you ask? Well, in Palm Springs they have wind generators everywhere and in the summer they do not even generate enough energy due to all the air conditioners for that one city?
Solar – Sure with new technology it could be a percentage of the grid, but folks are on drugs if they think solar will solve our energy needs, this nation uses more energy than anyone would ever imagine. Currently, the low costs we pay has given rise to our economic and industrial strength, a clear advantage over the rest of the world by far.
Demanding alternative energy like wind and solar which cannot compete with coal, hydro and nuclear means continuous subsidies, and in the end inefficiencies, meaning it these alternative sources may never be able to compete. As much as the alternative energy environmentalists dream, there is a reality behind energy supply and demand and eventually that reality will rule the day. Think on this.