Faraday's Future & The Electron Emporium

Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds

Michael Faraday 1791-1867

That quote from a long time ago got me thinking.

Have we almost emptied 'natures larder' or is there much more to come? If Mr Faraday had lived to be 77 or 87 - what else might he have come up with. If he was around today - would he and others like him be laughing or crying at the world?

Often a thought we all have I guess...if certain people hadn't come along in history when they did would the stuff they 'discovered' have happened at some point anyway? We'll never know the answer to that old chestnut of course...

For sure Mr Michael Faraday, late of Old London Town, was a vital catalyst to much of what we have around us today - in chemistry, physics, and electromagnetism, but I'll resist putting up a list ( click here if you are curious ) - this is not intended to be a history lesson.  

I'd like to share some thought on...

21st Century Energy. 

Up until this time, we have mostly tapped the consequence of solar energy - fossil fuel. For a long time we simply cut down trees until we discovered the secret stash of buried stuff that was fantastically energy dense - which then catalysed and sustained the industrial revolution and beyond...but not quite to Infinity...

Renewable and sustainable energy opportunity has always been around too - but it has mostly been a 'local' option with little or no opportunity to scale up.  Scaling up into a multi trillion Riyal/Rial/Dollar/Naira/Dinar Industry has not been a problem for the fossil fuel folk. It's been Bonanza time for more than a Century - and they've had us all over a barrel ever since... 

However.

Power - in all its meanings is shifting. The knuckles of those with vested interest are increasingly taught - still capable of packing a mighty punch as they grumpily hang on -  but awareness of the 'bigger picture' is growing...

From polluted city streets, the consequences of man made accelerated climate change, and the unintended but highly malignant geo-political realities of oil and gas extraction, humanity is shouting enough is enough.   

We will still need to 'feed the beast' of course - but we must change its diet...

'The Beast' being the most gigantic and impressive 'machine' humankind has ever created - the electricity grid.

The Grid (both electric and gas of course) keeps the lights on, keeps us warm, keeps us working, and enables every aspect of modern technology to function on demand. 

With a few notable exceptions.

One in particular.

Mobility

Unless of course you're travelling on rails rather than a roadway... 

I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if Michael Faraday and his cohorts were around today they would be astonished at this 'anomaly'.

They may well have set up shop with an electron emporium that even now we are only now just beginning to progress...

Energy Efficiency - Energy Mix - Demand Response -
Renewables - Storage -  Economics.

These are the threads being woven in and around the EV proposition. Proof positive of this with a specific illustration?  Black & Veatch & Tesla - click here There are many more, so if you have a favourite example feel free to include it in any comment you might make. 

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

– Vincent Van Gogh

Electric Cars - Vans - Trucks - Buses - for everyone everywhere?

It's not even a question to my mind, as if only a few of the truly great minds of the 19th century had been born 10 or 15 decades later than they were - you and I would have been whizzing around in an EV all our lives. After all, Mr Faraday invented the first electric motor... and I haven't even mentioned Nikola Tesla (oops!)

Wirelessly charged or with unimaginably better batteries than we have right now - I am sure it would be so.   

Meanwhile, I've heard tell of ambitions to tap the Aurora Borealis for the awesome power of electrons it exhibits. The International Space Station gets a ringside seat on that - and perhaps much more of what we are on the cusp of realising. 

Fantastical or Feasible?...

Harness Gravity

Tap Earth's Magnetic core

Hook up to the energy of the Earth's rotational spin 

So, a call to arms for the Faraday's of today...and the future -

Come and have a go if you think you're clever enough! 

Roger Atkins is Director of specialist EV Consultancy - Electric Vehicles Outlook Ltd ( www.electricvehiclesoutlook.com ) and is a veteran of several start-ups including Modec Electric Trucks, Gibbs High Speed Amphibians, Jumpin Student Taxi Share, and Virgin Cars. He is also a Brand Ambassador for Rimac Automobili ( www.rimac-automobili.com ) and Partner at Pariss Racing ( www.pariss-electric.com )