Electrification and decarbonization of transportation are among the most pressing challenges facing the United States and international trucking and energy industries. Freight carriers worldwide are looking for ways to transition their fleets to electric vehicles, lower their overall carbon footprint, and become more fuel-efficient.
Fortunately, the transportation sector offers one of the most readily available opportunities to make significant progress in advancing electrification while decreasing carbon emissions.
Smaller electric vehicles and delivery vans are already more efficient and produce lower emissions than their diesel/gasoline counterparts. A concentrated shift to EVs for this part of global transportation will deliver immediate, scalable and sustainable emissions reductions, regardless of how the electricity they use is generated.
This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.
The transition to electrification across the global economy faces numerous significant challenges. Ideally, this transition would roll out smoothly worldwide in the near term. However, the magnitude of the necessary changes in the electricity infrastructure will take decades to complete.
The world does not have to wait for that change to be completed before significant emissions reductions can be achieved in transportation. The transition to EVs can and should be made where it makes sense today; the rest of the sector can catch up as advances in transportation technology and electricity allow.
The electricity sector will evolve — if nothing else, market demands for cleaner generation and more abundant EV charging stations will force it to do so — and accelerating the transition to smaller EVs and electric delivery vans should jump-start modernization, especially of the grids and distribution systems that deliver electricity.
Make no mistake, modernizing the electricity sector is critical to large-scale electrification. Today’s electric utility infrastructure needs major upgrades to meet the growth in demand and charging stations required by transportation electrification. If that demand and distribution growth is not met, electrification will take decades longer than necessary, reducing, or possibly eliminating, the emissions reduction gains that are available in the near-term, and forestalling the major gains available in other sectors of the global economy
Currently, 70 percent of the nation’s power grid transmission lines and power transformers are more than 25 years old. Transportation cannot be fully electrified outside of the small EV and delivery van fleet without bringing the grid into the 21st century. Fortunately, power companies are upgrading some existing systems with real-time monitoring, advanced controls and improved communication systems. Power companies are collaborating with parcel delivery companies to ensure that grids can meet charging infrastructure requirements without negatively affecting the market price for electricity.
Stationary energy storage units are another key to expanding grid reliability. They are especially vital for plans to adopt more solar and wind energy. Renewable energy sources are critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to long-term reliability, as long as large, stationary batteries are available to store energy when demand is low and dispatch energy when needed. These battery storage systems will help increase grid reliability and resilience while creating economic opportunities.
However, pressures exist on critical battery minerals, and the global supply chain presents challenges to meeting the competing demand for EV and storage batteries in a timely and affordable manner. A sophisticated recycling infrastructure for EV batteries is essential to America’s ability to produce enough batteries to power millions of EVs, which require the same resources as stationary batteries for the grid.
Recent investments by domestic transportation battery recyclers, innovative scientific research in alternative battery chemistries, and work within the transportation sector can help prepare the United States for success. There is also an important role for the government to play. The Inflation Reduction Act has set up tax incentives for clean energy industries to help diversify critical supply chains.
However, despite the increased battery cell production, projections show that more work must be done.
A perfect system that achieves the maximum attainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions requires the electricity sector to be fully modernized. In the interim, we cannot afford to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The full and aggressive transition to smaller EVs must be made where it makes sense, in smaller electric vehicles and delivery vans. The benefits to be had far outweigh the challenges.
Steve Christensen is the executive director of the Responsible Battery Coalition. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
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