 Energy of the future 1
We've always expressed our doubts about the merits of the current push for electromobility, which apparently isn't quite working at the moment. The concern is that the growing number of electric cars is taking
something away from other consumers of green electricity.
But that would be counterproductive as long as there isn't enough renewable electricity available. Ultimately, we decided to support them after all so that a process that will certainly take some time can get
underway.
So we were probably right about the slow development. But there's another reason why we need to support electromobility now. However, we need to go a little further to substantiate this.
We are always pleased when the share of renewable energy increases, and has probably already reached well over half of consumption on an annual average, but we overlook the fact that this only refers to
electrical energy.
In reality, however, our energy mix includes other types, such as all fossil fuels, including oil (see video below). All of these energies, along with those from renewable resources, are referred to as primary
energy. In Germany, this amounted to almost 3,000 terawatt hours in 2024.
Please note: 'TW' would be the abbreviation for power, 'TWh' for consumption. The unit 'hour' should therefore always be included when naming primary energy. That would be 1,000 GWh or 1,000,000 MWh,
1,000,000,000 kWh, or 1,000,000,000,000 Wh.
So, now let's try to put things into perspective, as we want do in this series of chapters. Because only about 600 TWh of the energy consumed in Germany is electricity. That's a bit sobering, especially if you
were happy about the 60 percent for 2024. By 2030, however, it's expected to rise to 750 TWh.
It becomes even more difficult when we realize that more than the total electricity consumption, namely approximately 700 TWh, goes to mobility, and more than half of that is clearly due to individual mobility.
Drivers should think about this.
Mind you, the other part, less than half, includes air traffic. So, as a car driver, always pointing at air traffic doesn't quite match the numbers. It does make sense to pay attention to both.
Another big howler, at least for this first part: 600 TWh each are consumed for both building and industrial heat, i.e., the total electricity consumption in each case. This shows that we still have a long way to
go in decarbonizing our everyday lives.
The task of integrating the four-fifths of primary energy consumption that is not yet renewable into the power supply is incredible. It's already clear that this will not be achievable with wind turbines and
photovoltaics alone.
But there's also a glimmer of hope: almost everything we're converting to electrical power is decreasing. You can clearly see this in the electric car; it requires significantly less energy in the form of electricity
than it previously burned in fossil fuels.
In short: When we've converted everything one day, God knows when, our primary energy demand should have fallen by a little more than half. This will, of course, require not only technological change, but
also behavioral change.
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