Once again, putting the cart before the horse. The limitations on electrical power generation and distribution is the problem that should be tackled FIRST.
Go nuclear, and not just in rhetoric. There are recent developments in the design and cost containment of nuclear plants, that allow them to to built in a manufacturing facility, trucked or shipped via rail to the site, and be set up and running in weeks, not years. The Small Modular Atomic Reactor program is specifically designed for remote localities, but may also piggyback on existing grid distribution centers. These designs have addressed most of the continuing objections to older Light Water Reactor designs, in that they are able to run flat out for 24/7/365 for up to eight years, with no possibility of “China Syndrome” meltdown, no changing out of “spent” uranium rods and the resulting long-term storage problems of the radioactive waste.
Then we shall talk about the electrification of the privately-owned vehicles on the roadways and in urban areas. With all this electricity being generated in a safe and economical manner, the price of electricity would fall so low, it would be economically feasible to generate hydrogen on demand by electrolysis from stagnant waters, put in fuel cells for these electrically powered vehicles, and distribute the hydrogen by means of a swap-out tank, much like propane tanks for home cooking grills.
But the growth of this technology would have to be market-driven, and not the dictated edict of loons in the state legislatures. People will be using hydrocarbon-based internal combustion engines until probably well into the 22nd Century. The technology is well known, proven to have high output per dollar invested, and the application is highly flexible.
Those with our heads screwed on straight know that, but to the loonybirds just the word “nuclear” brings up visions of the “China Syndrome” and everything bad about nuclear power and their heads explode. It’s the same when educated people try to explain the damage done to the predator bird population by hundreds of wind turbines. The end result is what’s important to them, not the ecological damage done getting there.
100% with you... after throwing that post out there, it occurred to me that micro-reactors would do the trick. You wouldn’t even have to electrify every road... just the major thoroughfares (majors roads in a city, US highways, and interstates), allowing much smaller batteries and home chargers to get you around on non-charged roads. It might actually work.