Towards a More Sustainable Road with Tesla
A breakthrough event is allowing scientists in Australia to test printed solar panels that they will use to power Tesla for a 15,000 km journey set to begin in September 2022 (Nicole, 2022). This initiative is an important start that will help change the public perspective on how we can take steps to combat climate change. Electric vehicles are viable solutions for reducing the impact of the transportation sector which accounts for one-fifth of global carbon-dioxide emissions (Ritchie, 2022). Inventions like the one mentioned above can have a profound way of revolutionizing society by creating new sustainable patterns, this can also alter new ways to re-imagine channels for goods distribution.
In order for electric vehicles to be more widespread, gas stations will have to shift to offering recharging stations—and a lot of them. The principle functioning of an internal combustion engine has largely been the same since 1879—so this would be a large shift. The reason for this shift is not only for environmental reasons, but also economic. (Agassi, 2007). As the world continues to remain dependent on oil, this transition marks an important gradual transition towards sustainability.
The 3D-printed solar cells will effectively be able to capture more sunlight than previous photovoltaic models. This is because the materials will use copper, indium, gallium, selenide: (CIGS), which are known to weigh less and don’t require too have direct sunlight overhead. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe, 3D solar panels could be roughly 20% more efficient than flat solar panels. (Chandler, 2022). Another aspect is cost, it’s estimated that 3D printing will drop production costs by 50% by eliminating many of the inefficiencies associated with the waste of costly materials such as glass, polysilicon, or even indium (Hossain et al, 2020). Another way to look at it is that 3D printing will be able to take place nearly anywhere in the world, which will substantially decrease the shipping costs. The demand will be high for these low cost alternatives.
As climate change continues to remain a major concern, the mechanism established by the Paris Agreement has effectively established that the global temperature needs to stay below 2°C for the survival of humanity. (Gao et al, 2017). The need for profound transformation is essential for reaching the agreement’s set climate targets. It is pertinent to note that Tesla, from its initiation stage, has adopted an approach to transition to a carbon-neutral economy and establish a sustainable business model for the transportation industry based on zero emissions. Tesla’s mission is, “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” through renewable energy. Tesla’s foundation came through understanding the future and societal demands and needs. (Sekely, 2017).
The transition to an electrified form of transportation will reduce CO₂ emissions by 60% in 2050. This will help meet the Paris Agreement targets and also help in social and climate-related savings. In 2018, the global market was dominated by Asia which accounted for half of the world’s solar capacity, and the European Union represented the second-largest solar market by the end of 2018, the entirety of North America followed in third. This indicates that the dominance of these regions in solar markets will very likely provoke countries to enter into cross-country dependencies, and thus promote intra-regional trade among economies for boosting the renewable energy consumption.
Building new infrastructures will take years, and this would accelerate the effects on the climate—there is a need for short term solutions, solar panels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has widely said that humanity is at stake if global warming is not limited to below 1.5°C. Through the initiatives of scientists and companies who believe in transforming the energy road through sustainable means, hope remains, and thus it is the responsibility of policymakers and legislators to adopt initiatives that will help us build a more climate-resilient future.