Nick Butler, who is a regular writer in the Financial Times on energy matters, writes an interesting article on the recent developments in producing a solar powered car. Butler believes that technology, rather than negotiations or enforced sacrifices, is the way to achieve a sustainable energy system and that view comes out quite clear in this article. What is your view?
The shape of things to come: the solar powered car of the future
Meet EVA — the latest racing car. EVA has an elegant shape, with aerodynamics worthy of any of the cars which race in Formula One. The difference is that EVA is solar powered.
Some readers asked recently why I don’t write more about climate change. One answer is that there are plenty of blogs on the topic — some of which are excellent. But the real reason is that the current state of the debate on climate change is too depressing. There are only so many times that you can explain that current policies are not working and have more to do with corporate welfare than with real change. Or that policies which mandate the use of expensive sources of supply such as offshore wind and some new nuclear technologies cannot and will not save the world from the risks of climate change because most of the world’s population simply cannot afford them. We could have a completely carbon-free Europe and still have a global warming problem if the countries of Asia are forced by basic economics to keep using coal as their primary fuel.
So it is a particular pleasure to write about advances which can make a real difference. EVA is the vehicle produced by the Cambridge University Eco Racing group — a network of 60 students centred on the Department of Engineering who, over several years, have designed and built a vehicle which is now ready to race 3,000km across Australia from Darwin to Adelaide in the World Solar Challenge. The Challenge was established in the 80s by the solar pioneers Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins and over time has attracted a range of participants from across the world, mostly from universities. For five or six days, the cars will drive until 5pm when the teams, who have to be completely self-sufficient, make camp wherever they happen to be.The race is designed to push cars to race at top speeds of up to 130km/hr — not quite enough for Lewis Hamilton but in itself a significant technical achievement.
EVA is the latest model from the Cambridge team in an evolutionary development which has continued over the past eight years and represents a brilliant collaboration — bringing together state of the art work on batteries and aerodynamics. EVA uses space-grade gallium arsenide solar cells to charge a lightweight lithium ion battery. Her chassis is made entirely from carbon fibre, which is both strong and lightweight, meaning that EVA carries just a quarter of the weight of a normal small car. One of EVA’s unique features is the solar tracking plate which allows the solar panels on the car to adjust automatically in ways which allow the maximum capture of solar power.
Apart from making me wish that I was a student again, EVA’s story reinforces my belief that technology, rather than negotiations or enforced sacrifices, is the way to achieve a sustainable energy system. Science and engineering — particularly in great centres of research such as Cambridge — exist to push the boundaries of what is possible, and to break through the artificial barriers between different disciplines. EVA is an adventure, but behind the adventure is the serious possibility that vehicles could move beyond the 19th century technology of the internal combustion engine. The application of technology to capture more power is combined with the application of different technology to store that power in practical ways. Applied to other energy uses such as power generation, the combination could make an awful lot of existing power stations redundant.
The debate about whether hydrocarbon assets will end up being too expensive to extract has focused on the prospect of a globally agreed carbon price driving much of the existing energy system out of business. I think that is the least likely outcome. Too much media coverage this year will be devoted to the Paris talks in December which are doomed to end in a wordy communiqué which fudges the issue because the real economics don’t match the aspirations for change. The process is a dangerous illusion — promising change which won’t come by passing resolutions. Europe, which is further advanced than most in accepting the reality of climate change, can’t even agree on an effective carbon price — which is the minimum requirement for the sort of rules based change which is envisaged. Different countries will make pledges, but as with the international pledges of action on all sorts of issues — from tackling Ebola to famine relief — it is easier to get the pledge than the actual payment.
EVA, along with a host of other technical advances on which scientists and engineers across the world are working, offers the prospect that climate change can be dealt with through the application of technology in ways which transcend politics and offer new alternatives to people who want to pay less (rather than more) for the basics of heat, light and mobility.
All power to the Cambridge team.
