Earth Day Debate & Debrief: Sustainability and Fossil Fuels- Two Perspectives
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$500-$600 is today’s cost to drive an electric car 15,000 miles per year if the electricity is purchased from a utility. I have worked with California homeowners who have installed rooftop solar that are running their EVs off their solar systems. Free fuel!
They use their monthly utility bill savings to cover the monthly lease cost of their EV. Free car!
The remaining challenges of range-anxiety and initial vehicle costs have a clear path to enabling economies of scale that will make driving an EV the lower cost and cleaner solution.
This drop in renewable energy prices is being driven by global manufacturing economies of scales. For example, China’s coal and gasoline fuel strategy has created an environmental crisis that threatens their economy. One solution being adopted by the Chinese government is to massively investing in renewable energy technologies and factories. This will drive down costs globally.
Europe must free itself from the geo-political implications of using fossil fuels sourced from Russia and the Middle East. They are pioneering how to run an electric grid using mostly (or all) renewable energy.
California is the seventh largest economy in the world. The state must invest in technologies that use less water and fossil fuels. Zero Net Energy (ZNE) building technologies that deliver operations where annual consumption equals annual onsite renewable energy generation is a key technology solution that California has now placed into their building codes. California’s adoption of ZNE will create economies of scale that will drive the enabling technologies to price competitiveness.
The combined economies of California, Europe and China are driving renewable energy to price competitiveness. We have experienced this same trend in computers, flat-screen TVs and smart phones. The competitive question for America is not what role fossil fuels will play in the future. The question is how aggressively will America adopt renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies? The answer will drive the sustainability of America’s economic growth and our global strength in the 21st Century.
Bill Roth, Economist and Founder of Earth 2017
