The Future of Transportation Comes Down To a Battle Between Photovoltaics and Photosynthesis

Elon Musk says it better than I can (imagine that!).  Here’s his recent article on the folly of ethanol, in which he makes (and quite ably defends) the proposition that electric transportation will eventually win the day.  Why?  Essentially it’s the relative efficiency of solar PV vs. photosynthesis.  (Of course, he could have thrown in wind energy, hydrokinetics, and geothermal as well.)

I hope readers will check out the infographic in the article that really makes this clear.

Plants evolved to store just enough extra chemical energy to ensure their survival and eventual reproduction – not to power our cars and trucks, of which there are now over 230 million in the U.S. alone – over one billion worldwide.

There is no doubt that electric vehicles have a long way to go before they make a meaningful contribution to eco-friendly transportation.  In particular, we need to make sure that EVs, as an incremental load on the grid in the middle of the night, are not charged with coal-fired power plants.  But I believe we’ll get there, which is why I have a couple of cool EV projects on my list of clean energy investment opportunities.