Wind Energy

OffshOre #2 | The Magazine
Europe’s
energy future
how electric cars and
offshore wind power came together
hamburg, 2030. The small cars of hamburg’s moneyed classes are
swarming past the big power point on the bank of the alster. it was
around 20 years ago that the first legions of electrically powered cars
produced by BMW, Volkswagen and Smart started to appear on germany’s
roads. Back then, there were only 1,436 electric cars out of a
total of 41,183,594 registered vehicles. Most cars ran on petrol or diesel
– evil-smelling liquids with dubious origins and an absurdly bad
ecological balance. But the first oil price shock of the 21st century
finally forced the government to take a serious look at alternatives
to this waste of resources. electric cars seemed to offer a solution.
But studies quickly showed that “if additional electricity needs are
generated from coal-fired power stations, an average electric car will
66
produce up to 220g of CO 2 per kilometre,” as environmental organisations
calculated. That could have put an end to this new dawn for the
electric car. But the association of german power generators had recognised
at the time that “wind energy alone would be able to replace
all petrol consumption in germany.” Then some scientists came up with
the brilliant idea of making drivers buy all the fuel for the car at the
time they purchased the car itself. Power grid operators realised that
in this way, especially in the cities of northern germany, they could
acquire customers who would be certain to buy surplus wind power.
The result is that today, in zero-emission cities such as hamburg, no oldfashioned
combustion engine vehicles are allowed past the electronic
city wall that keeps the polluting dinosaurs out.