Re: Power Demand
The old sodium lamp draw was a fraction of the power levels needed to charge an EV overnight and the current lighting cable is nowhere near up to the task of charging cars along a mile of road, how many cars park between two light poles?
Simply to put the charge points in place will require digging every one or two car lengths and cutting into existing cables (many are pushing 100yr old) just like old parking meters used to be installed. It will be far easier (read quicker & cheaper but still many tens of billions) to build a properly designed system from scratch for the thousands of roads involved and the socket chosen will dictate the next century of vehicle charging design.
>>>You do realize that your oil refinery uses a tremendous load of power to refine crude?<<<
Yes, refining from crude or produce from base Carbon & Hydrogen requires a comparable power level, adding the power needed for extracting the C & H as well is why I mentioned a dedicated power plant. Some countries will need to put this on the coast for water and a desalination plant will also needed (more power, but still at the levels of current build nuclear).
This can all be achieved with well understood current technology, currently the UK has half a dozen or so refineries, building one carbon extraction plant of a similar size will make a big % difference to overall UK emission levels .
UK Govt. could have a quiet word with the UK refinery owners and get them to jointly fund the first plant (first of anything is always higher cost) and they can get to shout about helping to save the planet instead of being uncaring evil oil barons destroying it.
The point I'm making is that digging carbon out of the ground to burn is the problem not the burning of carbon itself. Pollution as a result of how the carbon is burnt is another issue that is being tackled by engine legislation & the slow incremental banning of ICE from cities.
If we are to go carbon neutral by 2050 then only methods that don't break the world economy must be considered because all countries including the dirt poor ones have to be on the same schedule. Europe/America/China going electric will be of little help if the other five billion people on the planet keep digging up oil to burn in ICE.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
