Will the grid cope with all our homes becoming all electric?
As we all move away from gas appliances, mainly heating but also cooking, more and more homes will become all electric. At a personal level we have recently changed to an all electric home replacing our gas boiler with an air source heat pump in a 250 year old semi-detached cottage by the sea in Scotland, but if everyone did that would the electric grid in the streets and towns need considerable expensive upgrading or not? Clearly there will be different situations whereby homes are supplied by a variety of district heating schemes. These district heating schemes may utilise industrial waste heat or large communal heat pumps using for example geothermal energy in abandoned flooded coal mines. However there will be homes where these schemes may not be possible for different reasons. In this post I will assume the related issue of being able to supply enough alternative energy for the average winter months will be achieved. I will also assume that there is adequate additional...