It’s one of those unsolvable problems – a Catch 22

We want our electric cars, our underfloor heating, our iPhones and our iPads, and all the other electrical gadgetry – but in order to work they all need power.

Recently, Texas has felt the full brunt of this problem. After the big freeze in February caused significant problems for its grid, it became apparent that Texans would have to cut back on their electricity at a time when there have never been so many electrical devices they “need” to plug in.

This might shock you, but parts of the US electrical grid are over a hundred years old!

Seventy percent of the grid’s transmission lines and power transformers are over 25-years old, and the average age of the power plants is over 30-years old. But, our electricity needs are more sophisticated and the strain on the grid is higher than ever.

We are constantly being told that clean power is the way to go. The US aims to phase out new internal combustion-engine cars within the next 20-years and will be replaced with electric vehicles (or EVs as they are known).

As anyone with an electric vehicle will know, charging away from home is a hit and miss affair right now. Traveling long distances is only viable on well-established routes between major cities and hubs.

There are not enough charging stations for the existing 1.4 million plug-in electric vehicles that have been sold since they came into the market in 2010. There are still around 282 million internal-combustion engine (i.e., diesel and petrol-driven) vehicles to be replaced.

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