Chapter Summary of Technical Transformation: Transportation Technology
Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash
1. Introduction
Change is everywhere. We need it to save the world from global warming. Many people around the globe have been affected by increasing temperatures, wildfires, unpredictable flooding, and air pollution. Even though renewable power is not a new idea, making it a sustainable reality is still challenging. In this report, I summarize Binus et al. 's chapter “Technical Transformation: Transportation Technology,” [1] and offer some suggestions for its application to my home country, Thailand.
2. Chapter Summary
The chapter discusses the background of Technical Transformation: Transportation Technology, the decentralization of electrical grids, renewable energy sources, and environmental issues and concerns in California, Oregon, and Washington. Power grid systems around the world are typically in a one-way distribution model: from producers to customers. In the 21st century, the grids respond to change by incorporating bi-directional flows of both information and power: consumers can import energy to their properties and export it back to the grids at the same time. Wind and solar are renewable energy sources that are in the local and state-level policies. They will pose new challenges for utilities to transform their organizations to reflect more forward-thinking visions. As California, Oregon, and Washington are in the process of developing and advertising new energy policies, the rate of adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will expand quickly in the next decade. While manufacturers increase production of electric vehicles and many states are moving toward policies friendly to the EV production industry, this could potentially create problems for all concerned. If EV owners charge their vehicles during peak summer hours, all at the same time, this increases production costs and decreases grid reliability, making it more expensive for both producers and customers.