Putting the (Electric) car before the Source

Electric cars, it seems, are the vehicles of the near and far future.  One British minister has predicted that in thirty years time there will be nothing but electric cars on the road, and even today there is pubic discussion about how the development of this technology can be funded.

It is a fascinating thought that soon our roads will be populated with near-silent Noddy cars, but living as I do in an area of Britain where we cannot get digital radio at all and the broadband service is unavailable to many, I find it hard to believe that we will have electric charging terminals along our mountain roads any time soon!

What is more serious is that putting the focus on providing the vehicles is ignoring a key question, which is, where is the power for the batteries to come from?  What is the source of the electric power to be?  While research and development in this area goes on, interestingly largely centred in the US and China, it is not enough.  If significant progress is not made soon on renewable energy, using the power of the sun in particular, then the lights will go out and our little electric cars will be useless.

We will be reminded of this in months to come.  There is still time for us to wake up and be ready, and I believe we will.