The advent of new technologies has sped the development and production of electric cars. Although these new technologies promise to provide environmentally friendly means of transportation, many of the issues involved in meeting infrastructure requirements bring up environmental issues. In order to support the mass mobilization of electric cars, charging stations must be built and power stations must be outfitted to meet the new, higher demands of electricity. Questions then arise as to where funding will come from, whether the process will be government or industry led, and whether charging stations will be standardized to support all models. The Los Angeles Times noted some of the different pros and cons associated with these questions.
California has been a leading force in supporting the development of electric charging stations. A recent law signed into action by Governor Schwarzenegger charged the Public Utilities Commission to research and evaluate various strategies for meeting the infrastructure needs. One city that has received actual funding for installing charging stations is Palo Alto, which won a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Despite the support for new charging facilities, California officials have implied they do not want to regulate companies developing car charging infrastructure. This has raised some political divisions in the state.
In addition to the private versus government sector development question, is the question of whether all of this development is necessary. Currently, there is not enough demand for these stations to make this development a feasible short-run investment. Additionally, long-run demand for the infrastructure is uncertain. Despite the uncertainty, the company AeroVironment plans on moving ahead with building the infrastructure.
One of the final challenges to the implementation and development of these stations is the strain it will put of the existing power grid. This issue was somewhat highlighted by the LA Times, but explained more in depth by the IEEE, a technical professional association. Ultimately, some attention will have to be paid to the infrastructure supporting the power grids in the areas containing these stations, and if new power stations are needed, the resulting increase in pollution could negate the positive effects of the electric cars.
Despite all of the challenges and potential downfalls of building these stations, it is important or construction to continue and for companies to invest in this technology. The major downfall of many attempts at progress is the unwillingness of someone to take the first step. The prospects of failure prove daunting, and those concerned with the bottom line often prefer economically-safe alternatives. Therefore, California should continue to support these companies looking to invest in the hopes that other states will follow. The proliferation of electric cars throughout America would help convince much of the world that America is serious about being environmentally friendly. The desire for the technology is in place; all that is left is for the companies and the government to create a plan and execute it.
I agree that electric cars are the way of the future, and that more must be done in terms of infrastructure to support this form of transportation energy. However, I have one major question; are the charge stations that are currently being built or planned to be built sustainable and green themselves. Sure they serve the purpose of charging and giving energy to a sustainable technology, but if they themselves are powered by old and unsustainable practices then what is the point. If green technology was incorporated into these stations, not only would it greatly encourage the use of electric cars, but it would also encourage a switch from traditional energy sources to clean ones so that electric car use is itself a sustainable practice. I hope that these areas that are looking into these systems realize this, and then plan accordingly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough public transportation is arguably the most efficient form of transportation, people are not going to stop wanting to drive individual vehicles any time soon. So electric cars are most certainly a great means to cut down on the emissions. For this to even begin to work these charging stations should be sustainable and green. Such as using solar power at these stations as the main form of electricity and then supplementing that with electricity from the grid. I advocate that we need to start now to construct this electric / solar grid because we will need to use energy to build it and we are already past peak oil. The longer we wait the more expensive it will be to get the fuel to build it. We need to utilize some of our remaining non-renewable energy sources to help us to get off of our dependency from fossil fuels.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, these new charging stations bring a unique opportunity to design the look of the future. This opens up a whole new type of "building" in architecture and adds an interesting new factor for planners. This could be the wave of the future but it needs to happen very soon to avoid disaster with our looming end of oil supply.
I also acknowledge that there needs to be more than just stations for charging of electric cars. We need to have better electric cars made more readily available and a large amount of change in legislation.
The other problem I can see with electric cars is the cost of buying the actual car. For these cars to become a realistic and reasonable form of transportation they need to be made affordable for almost everybody, otherwise no one will be willing to switch from gasoline powered cars. And for example if one of the charging facilities was built in the New River area, it would be most likely powered from coal, which is a major cause of air pollution as well. Besides the major expense of the charging facilities and renovating the road infrastructure, will coal produced electricity to power these cars result in less emissions than current gasoline powered vehicles?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that the only way electric car use could be a environmental solution is if charging stations did not use coal fired plant produced electricity. I’ve heard that charging stations in other countries use solar power to generate electricity (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Eletroposto6.jpg). However, just about any renewable energy source will do. Also, electric cars powered by renewable energy increases efficiency from about 35% (as in most cars with gasoline internal combustion engines) to about 76%. This percentage is calculated as the ratio of energy returned to energy used to obtain initial resources (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5101). Since electric cars provide many environmental and social benefits (increased energy efficiency, use of renewable resources, lower running costs (paying for renewable energy vs gas), zero tailpipe emissions, and etc.), they should be considered as a possible technology in our shift to a more sustainable society.
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