With the energy crisis affecting practically all fuels and energy vectors – from gas and electricity, to coal, oil and even firewood – it suddenly costs much more to move around. What can we do ourselves to keep costs down?
Rethinking how to drive
The obvious answer is to drive less, but this is not always a real solution. For example, you could reevaluate how many days a week you need to go to the office, and if you can increase your remote work. You could consider walking or dusting off the bike from the garage, because after all, most car trips in the EU are, in fact, only a few kilometers long.
But you could also rethink how you drive. Driving a bit slower requires less fuel. Furthermore, using car-sharing or carpooling options increases the number of passengers per car and takes cars off the road, too.
Public transportation
For further energy savings, I suggest looking into the offers on public transportation around you. Many governments subsidise or reduce the costs of public transportation to incentivise consumers to opt for buses, trains or trams over cars. Examples range from Germany to Spain and on a local level as well. Opportunities created help students save money but reduce some of the climate anxiety that generates moving around by car.
E-mobility
And in the long-term, this means promoting the transition to electric vehicles and reducing the demand for oil. This is a challenge we often addressduring my Master’s for Smart Electrical Networks and Systems. The change is complex. It needs overcoming technical as well as bureaucratic barriers such as permitting around electric vehicle charging infrastructure. But this, too, will eventually lead to savings for consumers and a cleaner world to live in.
E-mobility is a key theme of several EIT InnoEnergy Master’s programmes. From discussing the power grid impacts of electric vehicle charging in class to developing an electric vehicle charging plan for Brazil for the EDPR University Challenge (which recently had EIT InnoEnergy students winning first, second and third prize!) with two classmates, how we decarbonise the transportation sector will be a key challenge of tomorrow.
by Emilia Chojkiewicz, EIT InnoEnergy Master School alumna
Photo credit: Wolfgang Behrens – Mobility
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