 Electric
cars are good business for electrical and electronics engineers from
a multitude of standpoints, and since they are being imposed upon us
- ready or not - it might be a good idea to figure out how you can position
yourself to benefit from them career-wise. Power generation and distribution
engineering has always been a well-paying, challenging aspect of electrical
engineering. Control systems, battery management, brushless motors,
navigation systems (including collision avoidance and self-navigation),
and vehicle power and signal distribution are all technical realms needed
to make an electric vehicle fleet viable. All are in their infancy relative
to automobiles built for internal combustion engines. Many IC vendors
are already designing products specifically to address needs of electric
vehicles.As an increasing number of electric-only cars (compared
to Prius types whose gasoline engine charges the battery) are put into
primary service, the nation's grid is going to feel the stress. In fact,
our electricity generation and distribution system is already under
severe stress and it is only through impression, near super-human efforts
of planners and engineers that blackouts and brownouts are not a regular
occurrence. Rationing of electricity in the form of multi-tiered billing
schemes encourages customers to dial back energy consumers during peak
demand times by charging higher rates. Elaborate grid interconnections
actively switch supply and demand circuits to route energy where it
is most needed in as efficient a manner as possible. Smart Meters are
being widely deployed in order to determine usage statistics on household
occupancy, time of use, type of appliances being operated, quantity
of use, etc., in order to eventually (in some cases already) penalize
customers monitarily or even deny access to electricity. Generation
capacity is barely keeping up with demand as many coal-fired plants
are being taken offline and equivalent alternative sources are not available
to replace them. New nuclear power installations are not even being
seriously considered. We are just about at the physical limits of our
power generation and distribution system; there is no Moore's Law for
the grid. This, at a time when central planners are doing everything
within their power to impose electric vehicles on the populace.
On the demand side of the out-of-balance equation is the consumer
market. Appliance efficiency has been improved about as much as possible
for clothes and dish washers, televisions and computers, lighting (the
CFL debacle is another tragedy of bureaucracy), etc. Granted, there
are still a huge amount of old, inefficient equipment that needs to
be replaced, but that is not going to solve the problem anytime soon.
Industry faces its own set of obstacles, primarily massive costs involved
with re-outfitting assembly lines, updating logistical systems (transportation,
records keeping, accounting), complying with government regulations,
and much more. Engineers are contributing now and will do so much more
significantly in the future as high tech solutions are needed to manage
such an intertwined, complex maze of requirements. Traditional
internal combustion engine vehicles are themselves now entirely dependent
on computer management in order to start, idle, accelerate, cruise,
brake, steer, handle a bump in the road or a make a sharp turn. We depend
on software for navigation, system health management and troubleshooting,
security, hands-free cellphone communications, and even for tuning the
radio. Electric cars add to the electronics and electrical work load,
battery management (charging, cell balancing, fault detection, isolation,
and suppression); electric motors on each axle with sensors for optimizing
traction (acceleration and braking), efficiency, heating, and torque;
electric brakes (to supplement motor braking) and electric steering,
and crisis management to avoid and if not avoid, then contain and minimize
the ramifications of failure. It is a daunting task to be sure,
but ultimately not beyond the capability of the world's engineers. You
need only look at the amazing record of the aerospace industry to have
confidence that with enough manpower, resources, and determination,
all of the new challenges will be overcome. The highest hurdle might
prove to be not the technical aspects, but the financial. Will a large
enough portion of the world's consumers be able to afford the complex
solutions when the traditional products are no longer available because
of having reached the end of their lifecycle or because of government
bureaucrats outlawing the sale and/or trade of them (i.e., forced obsolesence)?
The charts below are screen shots from an interactive application
on the U.S. Department of Energy's
Alternative Fuels Data Center website. It shows currently existing
resources for the many forms of alternative energy replenishing sites.
The top image displays only public locations for recharging electric
vehicles, while the bottom image shows sites for all fuel types. Click
on either to single out each type of fuel - hydrogen, natural gas, ethanol,
LPG, etc.
The map above shows only the electric vehicle recharging stations
in the United States. The map below shows refueling stations
for all forms of alternative energy vehicles.
Posted September 16, 2013 |
