Should Electric Vehicles Run On Renewable Energy Or Coal?
One of the criticisms frequently levelled at electric vehicles is that they merely shift emissions from the tailpipe to the power station by increasing demand for electricity which is generated from fossil fuel burning power stations. But the high tempo of policy introduction in fact aims to curb GHG emissions from power generation and from transport in parallel. Utilities are the subject of the UK’s Renewable Obligations and the Energy Market Reform, and in the US by the Renewable Portfolio Standards. Grants such as the $230m of DoE and State funds allocated to ’The EV Project’ in the US are stimulating the transport sector (See Verdantix ECOtality Capitalizes On EV Infrastructure Funding).
In policy makers’ minds this will eventually result in electric vehicles powered by renewable energy. Better Place, the global EV infrastructure firm, aims to answer this criticism head on. It has recently signed a $60m deal with ActewAGL, an Australian utility, to supply renewable energy to its electric car charging network in Canberra, Australia for the next 10 years. The renewable energy will be drawn from wind, hydro and solar sources.
The Better Place deal is one of the first of its kind globally. But will the higher cost of renewable energy stymie EV market development? Not necessarily. Assuming Better Place adopts a subscription model as it plans for Israel, the customer will not be directly exposed to the specific cost of the electricity. Electricity will represent just one component of the costs Better Place seeks to recover through the subscription. While the EV infrastructure market remains largely uncompetitive, relatively minor price premiums are unlikely to be an issue. As with all industries, it is only when more vendors start entering the market that price competitiveness becomes more significant.
- Tagged in :
- Smart Grid,
- Energy Management
