Editor

Where do you charge your electric-battery powered vehicle? Where will all that electric come from?

Myself and a few people have been asking this over the past very recent years.

There are only a few tens of thousands of electric vehicles on the UK roads now. Soon it could be anything up to 30 million cars, not counting all the vans and lorries and also farm tractors and industrial fork lift trucks. What about more electrified trains instead of diesel locos and buses and all boats and ships and even aeroplanes?

I’m not against all this, but it struck home one Saturday last August when I stopped at the M5 service station to the West Country, below the Bristol area. The car parks were all full, with a parking marshall team trying to squeeze in the normal traffic with the immense number of tourist vehicles.

I noted about four charging points near the services café and another six near the petrol pumps. That’s probably changed a bit. Anyone using these ten chargers would be there charging up for at least 15 minutes or more. I suppose it is not beyond the wit of garage owners and domestic houses to up the number to about 40 million chargers.

What is not going to be easy and it is a very serious question to ask - “Where will all the electric come from?”.

Wind turbines and solar panels will never ever, ever supply this magnitude of reliable power. So, where will the electric come from?

I Richard Swansea

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page