Summer 2008 – we aim to use electric power to drive across Europe

Hello! My name is Richard Scrase and this blog is about a trip across Europe that I am planning for this summer. The aim of the trip is to demonstrate that it is possible for an ordinary person to use an electric vehicle rather than a carbon burning vehicle to make a long trip through (to me) unfamiliar territory. During this trip – which will create a transect from Britain to Romania – I will be filming to make radio and TV documentaries.
En route I will be interviewing academics, NGO representatives and politicians to make a ‘green audit’ of the countries we traverse. I’ll also be on the lookout for technologies and social developments that allow Europeans to live more sustainably. Recently published reports such as zerocarbonbritain from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAAT) lay out pathways to making our civilisation sustainable that require cuts in carbon use of 90% by 2050.
All such scenarios require land transport to use electricty and that electricity to be generated renewably. This trip will see how close Europe, or at least some of its constituent countries, are to meeting that vision.