An electrotech revolution is underway.
Solar and wind are taking over the electricity supply. Electric vehicles (EVs), and heat pumps are electrifying new uses. Batteries and smart digital controls are making a once-variable supply stable and a once-static demand flexible.
Transport, buildings, industry, and much more are electrifying, using clean electricity instead of inefficient, dirty fossil fuels.
Need-to-Know: A fundamentally better, more efficient, and healthier energy system organized around electricity is being built.
Electrotech is the newish term that better describes the energy transition and shift to electrification. It is the most profound transformation of the energy system since the shift from wood as the main source of heat and energy to coal, oil, and gas in the 18th century.
A reminder from my the last NtK:
Need-to-Know: Fossil fuels are inefficient and costly
More than 60% of the energy generated by fossil fuels is lost as waste heat. It’s like buying a dozen eggs and then throwing away 8 of those eggs.
Here’s an incredible stat: The energy wasted by inefficient fossil-fuel combustion costs $4.6 trillion globally every year.
We pay that $4.6 trillion cost every year. (For every $100 you put in the gas tank, you only get $20 worth of mileage. See Why Complain About Gas Prices When 80% of the Gas in Your Tank is Wasted?)
Need-to-Know: Electrotech brings energy security and stable power prices
Solar and wind can guarantee long-term energy security by providing the means to generate your own electricity as long as the sun shines and the wind blows. And all this electricity comes at a lower cost without adding to the thick blanket of CO2 pollution that is driving dangerous, costly extreme weather.
Need-to-Know: Solar prices have fallen by 99% since 1990, and battery prices have plummeted by 99% since 1991.
Electrotech costs have been falling for decades. Solar is now the cheapest source of electricity in history, according to the International Energy Agency.
Wind isn’t far behind.
Electricity is poised to become the dominant energy source in buildings, industry, and road transportation. Electrotech is now “too cheap to contain and too big to ignore”, according to Kingsmill Bond, Director of Ember’s Energy Futures Initiative.
Need-to-Know: Two-thirds of global energy expenditure is now going into electrotech.
EVs are now at or near price parity with combustion vehicles in many major markets. In China, new electric models retail for as low as $10,000. Sales of EVs have gone from 4% of all cars sold globally to 22% in the last five years.
And it’s not just China (50% of new sales) and Europe (25%) buying EVs:
65% to 75% of all new cars sold in Nepal are EVs
60% of new cars sold in Ethiopia are EVs in 2024, and it has banned fossil car imports.
Brazil will see a 40% increase in EV sales this year
Need-to-Know: Electrotech components can be repurposed or recycled when they reach the end of their life.
For example, after 15 years of use, EV batteries are being repurposed as stationary-storage batteries in electrical grids, or as back-up and emergency power systems. After that, recyclers can recover up to 95% of the metals and materials from depleted batteries.
This is where the puck is going. It could go a lot faster if more people, businesses, and politicians at all levels understood this. Spread the word.
Until next time. Be well.
Stephen