Impact of Electric Vehicles Essays -- Environment, Energy, Global Clim

Today, energy security and global climate change are two major problems affecting people and the environment worldwide (IEA, 2010). These problems are highly integrated with each other and mitigating global climate change without affecting the energy security is becoming a significant challenge for many governments and policy makers in the twenty-first century (Brown & Sovacool, 2011). In recent years, energy security has become a major concern in many jurisdictions with increasing energy demand, rising energy costs, and energy production and supply issues (IEA, 2010). According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy security can be described as, â€Å"the uninterrupted physical availability at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns† (IEA, 2011). The global demand for energy is rapidly growing with increasing human population, urbanization and modernization across the world (Asif & Muneer, 2008). In the past two decades, the global primary energy consumption had increased by 45 %, and it is expected to continue to grow by 39 % over the next two decades (BP, 2011). Today, fossil fuels – notably oil, gas and coal, are the major sources of primary energy to meet the world energy requirements. In 2008, nearly 81% of the global primary energy needs were met by fossil fuels, representing oil - 33.2 %; coal - 27%, and natural gas - 21.1% [ref]. The fossil fuels accounted for the greatest share of global primary energy supply and the rest is met by hydro, nuclear, biomass, geothermal, wind and solar. According to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2011 Golden Age of Gas (GAS) scenario, fossil fuel supplies will continue to be the dominant energy sources and account for more than half of the increase of ... ...ain consistency of the analysis. †¢ Equal allocation: In this approach, it is assumed that the generated wind electricity is equally allocated to all the EVs regardless of individual requirements. †¢ Demand allocation: In this approach, it is assumed that the generated wind electricity is allocated to each EV based on its respective demand, such that charging the EVs with higher demand is preferred to charging the EVs with lower demand. This research also considers the effect of introducing electric vehicles for weekday commuting purposes in passenger transportation and discusses the overall carbon impact of commuting; the results are extrapolated for various commuting distances. This research work used Prince Edward Island, specifically the city of Summerside, as a case study, but the general approach can be applied to other cities, provinces or regions.