The clean-energy challenge redux

For a publication that covers a field so important to energy-conversion technologies, I find it interesting that the recent conversations about “clean energy” in Physics Today seemed focused on whether we can produce enough of it. That issue came to my attention while reading David Kramer’s “Electrification of cars and trucks likely won’t disrupt the grid ” (Physics Today, April 2022, page 22) and the subsequent discussion in the April 2023 issue (page 11 ). Kramer substantiates the assertion in his headline with a quote from National Renewable Energy Laboratory research team leader Matteo Muratori: “Utilities are excited. Selling more electricity is their business…. We build new industrial facilities, new hospitals, and new schools, and they make sure the electricity is there to support those needs.”

A missing piece in the discussion has been a proposal to use less energy.

Generally speaking, traveling by rail is less energy intensive than by car or airplane. I live out in the country and have an electric car. But 100 meters from my doorstep lies an abandoned train platform that was active 60 years ago, and the train could have taken me to the city in less time than I can drive there now. And while my recent flight to a conference in Chicago took only three and a half hours in the air, when I factored in time spent heading to the airport, going through security, waiting for the flight, taxiing on both ends, and grabbing a shuttle into town, the trip consumed a bit over 10 hours in total. Had I taken a high-speed train traveling at 300 kilometers per hour, it would have taken nearly the same amount of time from city center to city center—and I would have been able to work, eat, and sleep at my leisure.

Europe understands that, and consequently many of its countries have constructed thousands of kilometers of high-speed rail throughout the landscape. Meanwhile, the US lacks even one fully high-speed line—currently the Amtrak Acela, between Boston and Washington, DC, is the one train that can reach high speeds, but only on parts of its route. Nonetheless, people buying vehicles have the option to choose among many “all-electric” SUVs, pickups, and other types of cars—some of which have more than a thousand kilograms of batteries, along with synthesized motor sounds you can turn on should you miss the rumble of an internal combustion engine.

It’s time to include the principles of energy conservation into the discussions about decarbonizing our economy.