Going electric - Plugging cars into the fuel of tomorrow

A SMALL step towards tomorrow’s world was made in Dublin yesterday when Ireland’s first electric vehicle (EV) charging stations — juice points — went live.

The installation of four on-street charging points starts a process intended to deliver 1,500 more across the country within two years. There are about 100 EVs in Ireland and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEIA) hopes that there will be 2,000 by the end of 2011. Energy Minister Eamon Ryan set an ambitious target for 2020 — he wants 10% of all our cars to be EVs by then.

This entirely positive ambition raises a number of questions and requires a new layer of co-ordination right across nearly all of the country’s infrastructure but the rewards are expected to be significant so motivation should not be a problem.

EVs are spectacularly more efficient to run and maintain than today’s fossil-fuelled cars. It is estimated that running an EV costs three cents per mile against 15 cent per mile for today’s average car. The environmental benefits are enormous too as all EVs have zero CO2 emissions. They have, at the moment, very limited range though.

If we are to capitalise on these advantages obvious questions about generation capacity present themselves. America has found that EVs can use up to three times the electricity of an average house though this ratio is improving all the time.

However, if there is a significant increase in demand for electricity, and if these plans are realised there must be, it brings the question of energy independence and nuclear generation to the top of the agenda again.

Despite all the evasions and superstitions we are being less than honest if we imagine we could satisfy the significant increase in demand for electricity EVs would bring without giving rational consideration to a nuclear power plant. Surely we cannot imagine we can import the extra fossil fuels needed to satisfy the demand? Renewable sources may not have the capacity to bridge the gap either. It raises questions about pollution too. Though all EVs have zero CO2 emissions that cannot be said of the plants that generate the energy to fuel these cars so an honest balance will have to be struck.

Let us hope too that the electric car project is more successful than the biofuels escapade. Biofuels were once thought to be the answer to our transport fuel problems but are now almost discarded. This is particularly difficult to understand, especially in an Irish context, as all of the bioethanol used here comes from dairy waste so no land was taken out of food production to create them. They reduced dependence on imported energy and cut carbon emissions as well. And bioethanol is considerably cheaper than petrol. It is hard not to think that an opportunity has been missed here.

Nevertheless, yesterday’s developments struck an optimistic chord and we should embrace the project as it seems to be so central to the transport systems of the future. Indeed, California has endorsed this view by amending planning regulations to insist that all new buildings, in certain areas, incorporate the facilities to charge EVs.

Government can take a lead in this by buying an ever increasing ratio of EVs; everything from ambulances to Garda patrol cars, from post office vans to ministerial limos. After all, example is everything.