[PaulV .... I agree with a lot of what you say .... however not point 1
...The idea that the sort of energy useage from petroleum (grey line) could be accommodated by 'winding back' the slight recent decine in electricty consumption (orange line) seems optimistic ...... replacing fossil fuels for transport would wipe out our current total electricity generating capacity from all sources more than twice over .... and our electricity is already fully utilised running stuff like industry, hospitals and people's homes, so the required increase in capacity in the short (in the context of major infrastructure projects) timescales seems somewhat challenging
First off, energy demand is lower now than it has been for years. The highest demand in the last couple of decades peaked in 2002 at 62GW and has now fallen to just over 50GW thanks to improvements in efficiency. National Grid estimates that even if there was an overnight switch to EVs, the increase in overall demand would only amount to 10 percent. This year, due to Covid measures, demand has fallen by another five percent and National Grid ESO (Electricity System Operator) predicts 44.7GW peak demand this winter.
