Regular readers of this column know I support new technologies and innovations, especially if they can boost productivity, save money, and do good in the process—such as those that reduce our impact on the environment.
While I have long advocated for green technologies, including electric vehicles, the truth is, we are not yet ready for a widescale transition to electric cars and trucks.
An infrastructure to support hundreds of millions of battery-powered vehicles is still years away. We are not yet able to build enough batteries for those vehicles, nor even mine enough raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, etc.) to produce them.
While new charging stations are being added daily, we still don’t have enough to make drivers feel confident about buying an electric-only vehicle.
And while we think of battery technology as green, in most cases, the batteries’ chargers still use power produced by traditional power plants that burn coal, oil, or natural gas or use nuclear fission. We simply don’t have the capacity to create electricity solely from renewable sources like sunlight and wind. And power demands are only going to rise, fueled by AI (artificial intelligence)-driven data farms and other new technologies—all of which will compete with vehicle chargers for available kilowatts.
That’s why we need to take a common-sense approach. We can’t simply abandon useful and proven technologies. For instance, though it does produce greenhouse gas emissions, the humble internal combustion (IC) engine is still an efficient and reliable source of power for our DC and transportation operations.
We must continue to use IC engines and improve them until something better comes along. Recently, motor companies like Toyota have been talking about how they can make engines cleaner and more efficient.
Advancements are also being made on the diesel-engine side. In May, Kenworth unveiled its SuperTruck 2 demonstrator vehicle, which it says is up to 136% more freight efficient than the 2009 Kenworth T660.
What it will take for us to power the future is a combination of **ital{all} of the above. We need to continue to develop our electric infrastructure and transition to batteries where we can. We must step up our efforts to make the engines and power plants that burn fossil fuels run as efficiently as possible. We should opt for hybrid solutions that combine battery and traditional fuels where feasible. And we should continue to develop new, cleaner energy sources and technologies, like hydrogen and fusion, as we look to power our future.
