When we talk to folks in the community, we get a lot of great questions and hear some valid concerns about the impacts of electrification. Efficient electrification, powered by clean energy, is a critical strategy in the fight against climate change, and you get a healthy, comfy and more resilient home as a bonus.
Electrifying everything means replacing a billion machines in the U.S. and updating our nation’s energy systems, which are big projects! With change comes challenges, and so today we wanted to address some of the most common concerns about electrification:
Fact #1: The grid can handle home electrification.
Electrification won’t break the grid; it will make it smarter. To meet our climate goals and electrify everything, we’ll need to deliver more electricity to our homes and buildings. But studies show that only a modest amount of added electricity is needed to electrify all our homes in the Pacific NW, since so many of them currently use inefficient resistance electric for air and water. As those homes switch to heat pumps, they use less electricity. As other homes switch for gas to electricity use more. Hence the net impact on the grid from residential electrification isn’t very large.
The switch from (liquid) gas to electric vehicles, on the other hand, will significantly increase electricity demand. Some of that supply can come from solar power generated right on our rooftops, but we’ll also need a more robust grid and additional sources of clean electricity. Fortunately we’ve scaled the grid fast in the past and there’s a massive effort to do so again. And smart grid technologies are being developed that’ll allow more electricity to be delivered by the same infrastructure, reducing the need for new grid build-out. It will be a big complex effort, but it’s underway. Source: Rewiring America. Read a detailed report on Electrification and the grid here
Fact #2: The electric grid is clean enough today that electrification dramatically reduces carbon emissions.
We’ve passed the tipping point—the grid is clean enough now that no matter where you live in the lower 48 states, it makes sense to switch to heat pumps for space and water heating. In the Pacific Northwest, the grid is currently 60% renewable (and constantly decarbonizing), meaning that if you switch from gas to efficient electric, you immediately go from 0% renewable energy (and emitting carbon at your home by burning methane gas) to approximately 60% renewable energy, with zero onsite carbon emissions. By installing solar PV or signing up for community solar, you can bring that up to 100% renewable. Check the electricity fuel mix (as of 2022) in your area
Fact #3: The carbon emissions of an EV over its lifetime are much lower than an average gas-powered car, even accounting for manufacturing.
While it’s true that building an electric vehicle (EV) creates more carbon pollution than building a gas car because of the energy required to manufacture the EV’s battery, over the lifetime of the car, the embodied and use energy of the EV is significantly lower. EV’s have zero tailpipe emissions, and if you use renewable energy to charge your car, the electricity they use is carbon-free. Even accounting for the manufacturing impact (extracting materials, manufacturing parts, and recycling or disposal of the battery) the EV will create less than 50% of the greenhouse emissions as compared to a gas car over their expected lifespans.
If you’re worried about waste from lithium mines, it’s helpful to understand that today’s fossil fuel economy demands a vastly larger amount of extraction for coal and oil, which produce waste, too. There are immense resources devoted to innovation around batteries, and experts project that fewer rare materials will be needed as battery technology develops and recycling capacity continues to scale. Check out this NPR article for more detailed information on this topic
Fact #4: Most fossil-fuel appliances still require electricity to work, so they aren’t immune to power outages.
Gas furnaces use an electric fan and modern gas water heaters also rely on electricity. Many gas stoves work without electricity if you light them manually, but ventilation fans won’t work. So be aware of dangerous indoor air quality and the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning associated with running gas stoves or generators in your home while the power’s out. Looking ahead, electrification will help to increase household energy reliability as new technologies come to market that will keep machines running when the grid goes down—electric cars have the ability to power our homes for days, and innovations that will enable us to tap into this energy source in emergencies are not far away.
As technology and the grid continue to evolve, we can make decisions in our sphere of influence—our homes and how we get around. By weatherizing your house, putting in modern efficient electric appliances, and using low-carbon ways to get around, you can greatly reduce your household’s carbon footprint—all the way down to zero, in fact!