Cart is emptyA perfect storm is heading our way.
A perfect storm is particularly violent and arises from a rare combination of adverse conditions that by themselves are particularly bad, but in combination they seem unsurmountable. We no longer have the luxury of tackling one problem at a time, we need multifaceted approaches and action.
The Perfect Storm: Part 1. Battery Electrically Vehicles… EVs. Moving people into EVs is something politicians are passionate about. Their passion is driven by climate advisors, pollution levels, and politics. What we have yet to decide is how the electricity will be generated and distributed to where it is needed. The proud new EV owner drives away to plugin and charge. We have been assured many times there is power generation capacity is available but as the war in Ukraine has shown, dependence on a resource, Russian Natural Gas that is outside of a jurisdiction’s control is highly disruptive. The rise of Power Protectionism where sellers of electricity stop selling to supply their own jurisdictions will be a real factor.
The Perfect Storm: Part 2. Air conditioning demand is a consequence of pollution from burning fossil fuels. The desire to live comfortably in moderate temperatures requires air conditioning and that requires electricity to power it. There are currently 3.6 billion cooling appliances around the world, this is forecast to rise to 14 billion by 2050 and will consume five times the amount of energy currently predicted for cooling usage. The growth is unregulated, unplanned and coincides with the move to EVs.
The Perfect Storm: Part 3. Employers driving employees back to the office. The COVID pandemic proved without a doubt that pollution levels in urban environments fall when the daily commute is ended. During COVID we saw how pollution and life can change quickly, it ended literally overnight. This needs to happen again, and be permanent this time.
The Perfect Storm: Part 4. NIMBYism and its role in blocking renewable energy plans must be addressed. The lack of forethought, planning, and legislation to make the changes needed to generate renewable electricity and the changes in society.
