As a side note, I figured out that it might be relevant to think energy producers/consumers as energy sources/sinks.
With better battery storage, you can shift consumption in time, while with better transmission networks, you can shift consumption in space.
electricity is cool, but its not the only source of energy used in the country: fuel is also a source of energy and needs to be replaced. The amount of electricity consumed in France is about 470 Twh, and the amount of Joules used overall is equivalent to 1500 Twh, per year.
To be clear: you only need to replace the final energy from the fuel, not the primary energy. That’s a big deal, because it reduces the amount you need to replace sharply.
gasoline is 100 time more energy dense than electricity, thus even inefficiencies at 70% for IC engines, gasoline would still be more dense somehow. But there is alot of geopolotics and environement issues involved with fuel. The problem of energy density needs to be resolved for electricity so it would be more convenient to use, even at the industrial scale, which is a major carbon emitter.
The article is from August/September 2012
The issue is that ICs just suck badly. So badly that carrying around half a ton of batteries still makes EVs much more efficent. that is not even looking at how petrol is made, which btw also requires electricity.
I feel like they forgot to include the cost (also environmental cost) to manufacture the battery.
I believe that a battery-free, electric solution would be best. Like a railway system.
