Electric Cars and Energy

¶ … Renewable Energy

Global energy and climate objectives have contributed to the increased development and use of renewable sources of energy that focus on lessening the environment impact of generating energy. The conventional sources of energy have contributed to significant environmental impacts, especially climate change. The environmental impacts that are brought by emission of greenhouse gases from conventional energy sources are endangering the world's ecosystems and human life. As a result, renewable energy sources are considered as suitable alternatives to help lessen environmental impacts while meeting energy needs. There are various renewable energy sources that are regarded as suitable alternatives to conventional sources including solar, wind, and electric energy. Even though these sources have minimal environmental impacts compared to conventional sources of energy, they are not cost-effective yet.

Solar, Electric and Wind Energy

Wind energy has been considered as one of the cheaper energy generation methods unlike conventional sources of energy like coal. Actually, generating energy or electricity from wind is cheaper than traditional power sources in several parts of the world (Hirth, Ueckerdt & Edenhofer, 2016, p.1). Energy or electricity is generated from wind through the use of wind turbines, which are easy to deploy at homes, businesses, and farms. In this process of generating electricity or energy using wind, the rotor blades of a turbine are turned by wind. The wind turbine then rotates a shaft linked to a generator, which results in generation of energy. However, for wind turbines to continue generating electricity, a seemingly constant wind at a reasonable speed is required. For small wind turbines, an average speed of 16km/h or 4.5 metres per second is needed for electricity generation. Consequently, such turbines are always mounted on towers in order to ensure they are exposed to more consistent wind at high prices.

Similar to wind energy, solar energy is also regarded as a cheaper source of energy compared to conventional sources of energy. Solar energy is suitable for residential and commercial demand because it has minimal environmental impacts and is relatively cheaper. Solar energy is generated through the use of solar panels, which obtains energy from the sun and converts it into electrical or thermal energy. In addition to the use of solar panels, solar energy can be harnessed using photovoltaics, concentration of solar power, and passive solar. Photovoltaics are also known as solar electric while concentration of solar power may also entail solar heating and cooling and usually developed at utility-scale. Active solar systems like solar panels are electrical or mechanical systems that change heat or light from the sun to a usable form. On the other hand, passive solar systems include the use of buildings that are developed and geared towards gathering, storing, and distributing heat from sunlight. In this case, the systems maintain the comfort of the buildings' occupants without the use of electronic technologies or movable parts (Solar Energy Industries Association, n.d.).

While electricity generation using conventional means has been detrimental to the environment, electric cars are considered as suitable renewable sources of energy. As compared to conventional vehicles that are powered by gasoline energy, electric cars are powered by electric motors. Electric cars are environmentally-friendly because the electric motor obtains energy from a controller that regulates the amount of power depending on the extent with which the driver uses an accelerator panel. The energy used in electric cars is stored in its rechargeable batteries that are recharged through normal household electricity (Berman, 2014). The efficiency of these cars emerges from the fact that they contribute to reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. In essence, electric cars do not emit greenhouse gases (that cause environmental harm) because they are not powered by gasoline. Actually, these cars lessen dependency on oil and are significantly cheaper to operate. This implies that the efficiency of electric cars is their reduction of the overall carbon footprint (Berman, 2014). Despite their efficiency, electric cars are not yet widely embraced due to restricted driving range before recharging the batteries and long duration of recharging. In addition, automakers of these cars have been reluctant to create and market electric cars with similar features and comforts as gas-powered vehicles.

Cost-effectiveness of Solar, Wind and Electric Energy

The deployment and utilization of renewable sources of energy, especially sun and wind has continued to increase and is expected to continue rising in the future. In comparison to conventional energy sources that utilized centralized power plants, renewable energy sources are cheaper since they are smaller-scaled and geographically distributed (Barbaric & Loncar, 2016, p.1091). Solar and wind energy sources are increasingly utilized because they help ensure reliable and secure energy supply with minimal environmental impacts. It's quite evident that solar, wind, and electric (electric cars) energy are cheaper in comparison to conventional sources of energy or power.

However, solar and wind energy are not that cost-effective yet since they are relatively more expensive than generally thought. According to the Economist (2014), solar and wind energy are more expensive and not that cost-effective yet despite their efficiency with regards to environmental friendliness. Actually, subsidies for these renewable energy sources have been increasingly controversial in public policy arena with regards to their cost effectiveness. Currently, billions of dollars are spent in developing solar and wind power industries with the view that these renewable energy sources will reduce fossil fuels and significantly lessen the amount of greenhouse gases emissions into the Earth's atmosphere.

The costs of installing wind turbine systems i.e. $65,000 are largely prohibitive and unaffordable by many people. Small wind turbine systems, which are ideal for homes and small businesses, range between $10,000 and $15,000 per kW. This implies that a 2 kW small wind turbine would cost approximately $20,000 or $30,000 inclusive of installation fees. While a small wind turbine is more suitable if an individual is not connected to the grid, the cost of wind turbines remain largely unaffordable and expensive to many people. Therefore, if wind energy is to be utilized as an alternative source of energy, it would not be accessible to many people because of high costs of installation and high costs of setting up a grid. To this extent, wind energy not cost-effective yet despite being proven as a suitable renewable source of energy with little to no environmental impacts. In addition, wind energy requires higher speeds that may be difficult to sustain in order to generate energy. The need to mount these turbines in towers or areas that they are exposed to high speeds generates additional challenges, which implies that this renewable energy source is not cost-effective yet.

Solar energy is also a suitable renewable source of energy with minimal environmental impacts in comparison to conventional sources of energy though it's not cost-effective yet. The average national cost of installing a solar panel system is estimated to be between $8 and $9 per watt (Bounce Energy, n.d.). This implies that the cost of a 2 kW solar grid-tied system with no back-up battery can be approximately $16,000. A similar grid-system for using solar to generate power would cost more than $40,000. In case back-up battery is required for the grid-system, the cost of power generation using this system could increase by 20 or 30%.

In the past few years, the average cost of a solar panel is around $1.03 per watt as compared to 1980 when it cost $21 per watt. This implies that power output capacities of solar energy systems have improved while its costs continue to decline significantly. Actually, 100 watt solar panels have become more common and plenty with the output capacities have increased by 450%. As new developments in solar systems continue to emerge, it's expected that the costs of setting up a solar panel as well as grid will decline significantly. Until then, solar energy is not cost-effective yet because the current costs of solar panels is high and unaffordable to many households. These high costs emerge from the fact that setting up such systems is equivalent to investing in a home-sized power plant (Bounce Energy, n.d.). This is relatively a long-term investment like a large scale power plant that takes between 15 and 25 years to establish. Moreover, solar power farms operate at only around 15% of the capacity of coal power plants, which implies that they can replace less of conventional power sources.