Will the price of electricity go up?

Question

With all this hybrid cars and electric cars we're building, and when that time when fossil fuels are no longer needed (probably not in the immediate future). Will the price of electricity go up since it will be the dominant source of fuel?

Answer 1

You're missing something here. Currently, fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) are being used at power plants to generate electricity. Any alternative fuels developed will certainly be more costly to use, therefore, of course you will be paying more for electricity.

Answer 2

The reason we use fossil fuels is because it is much cheaper. It is not due to some plot by industry or the government. If alternative sources were cheaper, we would be using them. Of course it will go up.

Answer 3

I don't think the price will ever go down, so it only has one way to go...UP.

Answer 4

Electricity is NOT a source of "fuel."

Electricity is generated from a number of sources:

Oil--fossil fuel.

Natural gas--fossil fuel.

Coal.

Nuclear.

Hydroelectric.

Wind.

Solar.

Geothermal.

Hybrid cars run on gas.  The gasoline turns an alternator, generating electrical energy (or during braking, the motion of the vehicle generates it.

Increased demand makes for increased cost.  But don't worry, we are building many more nuclear reactors over the next 3 years, and the price of nuclear power isn't going up like that of oil or gas.

Answer 5

Don't worry about it in your lifetime.   We'll still be burning coal for years to come.   The Germans turned coal into a synthetic form of fuel to run vehicles on in the 40's.   BP and Arch Coal are partnering up to do the same in the US now.   I doubt there will be enough electric vehicles to ever make much of a difference.

Answer 6

It already has gone up because of the Global warming hype. You have another thing wrong and that is that we will never run out of fossil fuels as the plants are recycling it now.

Answer 7

Yes it will go up. With or without the electric cars. And if the price doesn't go up fast enough there are always taxes to make it go up artificially.

Answer 8

Yes, if plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles became more common, it would increase demand for electricity and therefore increase the price.  However, the price of electricity for recharging electric vehicle batteries would still be far less than the price of gasoline.

Answer 9

Most likely.

Answer 10

Yes; but not necessarily from the demand of battery electric vehicles. There is plenty of generating capacity to charge these batteries during off peak periods when generators are running on low loads.

What will cause the price to rise is the clean up of emissions from the power grid. Conversion to clean coal technologies for coal fired plant.

http://www.cogeneration.net/CleanCoalTec...

The building of greener power stations and renewable energy  systems.

Put simply it will cost more to reduce pollution.

Battery electric cars will reduce pollution from transport sector. The pollution generated at power station will increase as a result. (though not by as much). We will still need to reduce pollution from the electricity generation industry to make a significant difference overall.

P.s. A cynic would also add that government revenue obtained from fuel taxes etc will need to come from somewhere else.