I find the argument about how bad electricity is extremely unconvincing. It’s very clear that EVs will eventually match or even surpass ICE cars on range, at the same weight. There are battery cells in the lab that can do this, it’s just a matter of finding the chemistry that can do it with good cycle life and other key properties as well.
And of course they do this while being far more energy efficient.
Electricity is the only energy infrastructure we truly need. It’s entirely feasible to get completely rid of the gas/gasoline energy infrastructure and only distribute electricity. But going the other way is unimaginable.
I suspect that CO2 to gas/fuel solutions will at best be a temporary solution. Electricity energy storage will be the primary economic/technology driver for decades. Everything in society is being improved by improving batteries. There are already staggering amounts of R&D growth in this area and it will not slow down.
Long range airplanes may always need hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuels. But I suspect that will be made on-site at airports eventually, using electricity from the grid or a co-located solar power plant.
One more thing: I don’t see how nuclear energy could ever beat renewables for making synthetic gas/fuel if the capital costs of building the synthesis plants become low enough that you can produce only when electricity is cheapest: then they can just run on excess renewables, which is free. Like the author touched on: the products are easy to store in time and space. So no need to produce continuously. Nuclear energy will never be free.
I find the argument about how bad electricity is extremely unconvincing. It’s very clear that EVs will eventually match or even surpass ICE cars on range, at the same weight. There are battery cells in the lab that can do this, it’s just a matter of finding the chemistry that can do it with good cycle life and other key properties as well.
And of course they do this while being far more energy efficient.
Electricity is the only energy infrastructure we truly need. It’s entirely feasible to get completely rid of the gas/gasoline energy infrastructure and only distribute electricity. But going the other way is unimaginable.
I suspect that CO2 to gas/fuel solutions will at best be a temporary solution. Electricity energy storage will be the primary economic/technology driver for decades. Everything in society is being improved by improving batteries. There are already staggering amounts of R&D growth in this area and it will not slow down.
Long range airplanes may always need hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuels. But I suspect that will be made on-site at airports eventually, using electricity from the grid or a co-located solar power plant.
One more thing: I don’t see how nuclear energy could ever beat renewables for making synthetic gas/fuel if the capital costs of building the synthesis plants become low enough that you can produce only when electricity is cheapest: then they can just run on excess renewables, which is free. Like the author touched on: the products are easy to store in time and space. So no need to produce continuously. Nuclear energy will never be free.