Auto-electric?

We all know that fossil fuels are bad for the environment and that their use in cars is being phased out but how much do you know about the alternatives? Electric cars probably spring to mind but what about other options that might actually be better choices? This is relevant for the GCSE course and, more importantly, it’s also vital for anticipating and planning the future of private road transport for many decades to come.

There is an excellent TED-Ed video that provides the basics of this debate: you can watch the video (on YouTube) here. Usefully, the video finishes by suggesting two further videos that look at how much electricity could be needed for all future demands (not just electric cars) and how much space would be required if we were to generate all of that electricity using green technology.

Just one note of caution though: the future-demands video appears to assume a more than linear increase in electricity demand based on figures since 2000 when (for most of that time) there has actually been a decline in UK electricity demand due to technological advances, such as the moves from filament to LED lamps and from CRT to LED television sets. This can be seen in the graph below, which was created using UK government data (available here).

The discrepancy arises because the video takes a global stance whereas the graph is specifically for the UK. Nevertheless, I hope that similar or other technological advances that have helped the UK will also help to compensate for the expected increase in worldwide electricity demand in the future.