Decarbonisation: Electrify Everything?
Two-thirds of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are from burning fossil fuels for energy use in heating, electricity, transport and industry. To meet global climate ambitions and reduce GHG emissions, a scaling up of renewable energy generation is anticipated and electricity has a key role to play.
Historically, there has been a limit to the number of things that can run on electricity leading to reliance on fossil-fuel powered combustion engines. However, improvements in technology mean it is increasingly possible for these engines to be replaced with electricity in a process known as electrification.
Consider the electrification of cars. Until very recently, all cars were powered by their own gas-fired pistons: the internal combustion engine, which derives its energy by burning petrol or diesel. With improvements in energy storage technologies, electric vehicles have become viable alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles, and are becoming increasingly popular. More and more people will switch from older inefficient cars to newer electric vehicles, electrifying their own transportation and increasing the need for electricity.
Did you know? In the UK, the Government is committed to investing more than £2.8bn in electric vehicles and is ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in 2030 (see the Prime Minister’s green recovery plan here).
Home heating is another process that has seen a shift towards electrification. Innovative new and improved technologies, such as air source heat pumps and geothermal heat pumps, now mean that homes can be heated using electricity rather than from burning fuel. Considering 10% of total UK carbon emissions come from heating buildings, this is a promising step towards decarbonising homes.
Electrification is transforming and challenging the status quo but there are still limits to what can be powered by electricity. For example, the cost, power requirement and weight of batteries mean it is not yet possible to power a commercial aeroplane exclusively or primarily with electricity.
Yet, new innovations continue to challenge and test these limits. Startups like Heliogen (backed by Bill Gates) are harnessing solar energy to replace the use of fossil fuels in heavy industrial processes, such as producing cement or steel. Currently, cement production accounts for 7–8% of global CO2 emissions and iron and steel account for 4–5% of global CO2 emissions. If scalable, Heliogen would dramatically reduce GHG emissions from these activities.
In transport (electric vehicles) and homes (heat pumps), we have witnessed how technology is enabling us to switch from burning fossil fuels to running processes on electricity. As the electrification trend continues, running processes on clean electricity generated by renewable energy facilities can drive much further carbon reductions. Coupled with continued technological advancements, there is a real opportunity to lessen our reliance on fossil fuels with electricity.
