Battling the ongoing climate change is paramount – even the national and local governments are coming aboard the ship of eco-friendliness. Solar and wind power is gaining momentum, the car industry is being pushed into the EV business, and people are exercising the green mentality privately. This being said, 2018 is going to be quite a busy year. It can be safely assumed that we’re going to see a tremendous spike when it comes to green tech.
Politics is starting to embrace eco-consciousness
Despite Trump’s widely criticized decision to opt America out of the Paris climate agreement, the rest of the world is still moving forward. In response to the US president’s decision, France created the “Make our Planet Green Again” initiative. The UK has also shown intentions of completely banning ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles by the year 2040, and France, with their capital being notoriously polluted, has declared that diesel- and gas-burning cars are to be banned by 2030.
On the other side of our planet, China has already installed a vast number of solar and wind energy projects over the course of 2017, making its intentions for 2018 quite clear – mitigating local and global CO2 levels and focusing on making green tech cheaper worldwide.
With these and many other countries forcing big motor vehicle companies to focus on producing more efficient vehicles, even big names such as GM, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Honda are starting to turn towards eco-consciousness. The end goal is clear – counteracting America’s decision to trivialize pollution and global warming. The global superpowers are making a clear statement: they are going to strike a huge blow to global pollution, no matter who’s in-office at the White House!
Eco-friendly vehicles
As a top source of pollution, motor vehicles are toxic for our environment from the moment the manufacturing process starts, all the way to the junk yard. Although the beginning and the end of a car’s life cycle have yet to be resolved pollution-wise, a lot can be done on the subject of their time on the road. In fact, a lot is already being done.
Tesla’s Model 3 was released back in July 2017, being delivered to almost 400,000 people who had preordered it. Although the initial promises from Elon Musk never came through (not by a longshot), things seem to be picking up, with huge numbers of Model 3’s being spotted at the delivery centers.
With a tall order of wanting to sell approx. 30,000 Bolts per year, Chevrolet is slowly getting back on track after initial setbacks. Given the fact that 3,000 Chevy Bolts were sold last month, if they keep a steady flow, they’ll be hitting the 30,000 mark by the end of the year. So, what’s so cool about the Chevy Bolt that has made everyone so excited about it? Well, it’s quite gorgeous, fun, sporty and spacious for a little electric car.
Even the luxury car industry is getting on board the EV train: the expectedly pricey Jaguar I-Pace is a perfect answer for those who are looking for sleek luxury built around an eco-friendly 90kWh battery and a 400 HP motor.
The famed German auto company has released the BMW i3, which combines futuristic styling, fun and eco-consciousness. Although it will definitely end up being significantly cheaper than the above-mentioned Jag, $48,300 is still a steep price.
Solar power
On the other end of the spectrum lies solar power. Energy wasting is ICE pollution’s twin brother, but perhaps even more evil. You may remember the solar power technology not really looking like a good investment, but anyone who’s been following the global trends knows that things have changed – this technology has become significantly more efficient over the course of the last few decades, naturally leading to drops in prices. With the battery storage option in progressive pieces of technology such as the 5kWp Solar System, using this means to power up one’s home can really pay off in the long run.
Wind power
Australia and Hawaii are already harvesting wind energy to use on calmer days, and China (as mentioned) has installed a record number of wind projects in 2017 in order to battle their growing smog problem. In fact, this Asian nation is expecting as much as 20% of its power to come from the sun or wind by 2030, and is ready to invest a ballpark of $560 billion by 2020.
Bottom line
As the three pillars of green tech, EVs, solar energy and wind power cannot reach their full potential without each other. In order to stop the pollution, the world governments need to embrace the combination of solar and wind technologies as the main source of energy. Exactly owing to the fact that the US has opted out of the Paris climate agreement, the rest of the world has to embrace green tech and save our planet.
Guest article written by: X