Electric This and That

Wow! Technology geeks everywhere are telling us that electrifying our world will make life better for the human race and Mother Earth. The most visible effort for mass electrification is for everyone to own an electric automobile or truck. In my world, there is now movement to produce electric airplanes. Oh, what a wonderful world it will be when we modernize travel with these magnificent electric vehicles. But wait, not so fast! Maybe, just maybe, we need to slow things down and rethink the broader implications of this new electric powered world. I have some questions for every electricity provider in North America. In your service area, is the present neighborhood electrical infrastructure sufficient to handle the increased electrical load of hundreds of electric vehicles? If not, what will it cost to upgrade every neighborhood to accommodate the increased demand? Will your company be able to obtain the power necessary to support charging all the electric vehicles that might end up in your service area? Today, does North America even have the total electrical capacity to add charging millions of new electric vehicles?

You don’t just plug in? Reality Check!

Then there is the very current case study of California. We have all seen in the news that for the last year California has been operating with insufficient electrical capacity to even keep the lights on for all its citizens all of the time. Rolling blackouts have become a normal lifestyle for much of California. In spite of this fact, California has legislated increased use of electric vehicles. That will be helpful! Is this the future of all of North America? Most people don’t think in terms of what electrical power really is. You don’t just plug in? Reality Check! When an electric vehicle or any electric device is plugged in, one of the following power sources is in play:

1. Water power
2. Steam power fired by coal
3. Steam power fired by oil
4. Steam power fired by natural gas
5. Steam power fired by bio-fuel
6. Steam power fired by atomic energy
7. Steam power fired by solar energy when the sun shines adequately
8. Solar power when the sun shines adequately
9. Wind power when the wind blows adequately

We also have the current case study of Texas. In 2021, recent reliance on solar and wind power failed in a rather sad, but spectacular fashion. A winter storm shut down wind generators and much of the solar capacity. Several days in sub-freezing temperatures was a disaster with the failure of the “green” energy sources. Is this a foretaste of things to come in North America?

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To accommodate the envisioned future increase of electrical vehicles, the North American electrical grid needs to be upgraded before the fact

The reality of the Texas and California electrical problems, and the disastrous result of America’s response to the COVID 19 “pandemic” are screaming examples of politicians and bureaucrats taking action without adequate knowledge of the big picture. The unintended consequences can be devastating. When people focus on one small problem without assessing the impact of an action on a broader scale, all kinds of bad things happen. In retrospect, how wise was it to have shut down all of California’s nuclear power plants? In retrospect, how wise was it for Texas to rely so heavily on green energy? In retrospect, how wise was it for immunologists to be allowed to shut down America because of a false panic they created? To accommodate the envisioned future increase of electrical vehicles, the North American electrical grid needs to be upgraded before the fact, not after all of North America is experiencing what Texas experienced and what California continues to experience. Too often, the government in particular is very good at putting the cart before the horse. Oooops! Sorry. We just didn’t plan on the shortage of electricity. This is just not acceptable!