Electric power revolution under way

Ewan McGregor

Opinion

The developed world is in the early stages of a far-reaching revolution in electrical motivative power — its sustainable generation, battery technology and lightweight application. This is not a revolution poised to happen — it’s now under way. Think of the developments of the last decade.

How many e-cars were on the road 10 years ago? As more are sold so too the price could lessen, and the infrastructure for recharging will develop. E-bikes? I’m not sure that I had even heard of them a decade ago. (We now have a couple of e-bikes — they’re marvellous — and have two perfectly good push bikes in the shed which are now worthless.)

This is a revolution that will take time. Remember that the internal combustion engine took around four decades to eliminate the gig and the buggy, and a little more for the draft horse and the steam engine.

Today we have a range of exciting new applications of electric power. What about the solar pump in the farmer’s back paddock, or the power tools on the building site? Or battening a fence — one bang per staple? The old way took half a dozen bangs with a hammer. That’s a couple of hundred for the five battens between posts on a seven-wire fence!) Drone photography? We see it all the time on TV. Garden aids are other examples.

All around the world solar panels are going on to roofs, and solar farms are materialising. Wind farms, too, are being constructed around the country. The one straddling the Manawatu Gorge has been added to since the first turbine was installed. It is a rarity to see the blades stationary — not even when the long grass down on the roadside is still.

How often do the naysayers need to repeat the startling revelation that the sun doesn’t shine at night-time or the wind doesn’t always blow? So how come people and institutions around the world are investing vast amounts of money in these developments?

A solar panel on the roof of a house doesn’t just have the capacity of heating the water, but also charging the battery of your car. Free energy to drive your car! That seems rather compelling when compared to ever-increasing petrol prices, and an alternative for when the oil runs out, as it surely will. To say nothing of environmental concerns.

This country has been rather precious about nuclear power, giving it a moral dimension as a reason for its banning. But then we are not a heavily populated country with little potential for hydro power. And one day those US nuclear-powered (but not armed) ships we’ve banned might be needed to protect us. One might say that their very existence now does that. But nuclear power has its downsides too. We just don’t need it, at least not for the foreseeable future.

All this gives us cause for hope in a troubled world. Enough from the cynics!