Learn more about renewable energy
Oxford University Press Blog: “The case for investing in wind energy,” November 19, 2020
If you spend time driving on the interstate highway system in the US, you may be surprised, as I have been, to see the rapid development of wind energy. This is especially true in the Great Plains, where there is a seemingly endless array of wind turbines decorating the horizon. And, north of Los Angeles, the Tehachapi Mountain Range is home to almost 5,000 wind turbines.
Oxford University Press Blog: “The economic and environmental case for electrical vehicles,” January 5, 2021
Electricity generation comes from many energy sources, including fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, nuclear energy, and a variety of renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biomass. For the transportation sector, however, energy comes primarily from crude oil. In 2019, 91% of energy for the transportation sector came from crude oil with the bulk of the remainder coming from compressed natural gas (CNG) and ethanol. Of the two emerging transportation technologies, the electric vehicle (EV) made up less than 1% and the hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle (FCV) was two orders of magnitude below this.
Electric Vehicles: A Shift in the Resource Landscape for the Transportation Market
The massive US and worldwide transportation sector is fueled mostly by crude oil. Although ethanol and compressed natural gas (CNG) have grown to 6% and 2%, respectively of the US total, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel account for more than 90% with very little from electric vehicles (EVs) using electricity or fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) using hydrogen. Before the worldwide pandemic, worldwide crude oil consumption was more than 100 million barrels per day (BPD), and the US consumed 20.5 million BPD or about 20%. Of this 20.5 million BPD, 9.3 is consumed as gasoline and 3.0 is consumed as diesel. These fuels support a vehicle market of 278 million serving a population of 331 million. Worldwide, the number of vehicles exceeds one billion.