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FYI, electric does not mean green. Most electricity is generated from dirty coal so there's no net benefit from using electric cars until we can generate clean

by proee 17y ago

FYI, electric does not mean green. Most electricity is generated from dirty coal so there's no net benefit from using electric cars until we can generate cleaner power production.

anigbrowl 17y ago
You get greater economies of scale at a central power plant than with numerous distributed motors, plus you only need to install one set of scrubbers. Joule for joule, it's cleaner to run an electric motor on AC than to run your own generator.
- proee 17y ago
  The point I'm trying to make is that converting cars over to electric right now is not a green solution. I believe there is less pollution by running an efficient combustion engine than running an electric card that's powered off a coal plant. There's a lot of efficiency lossed from starting with the coal, to converting to electricity, to charging the batteries. With a gas powered car, the bulk of the efficiency is in the last stage. Wish I had some more numbers to back this claim but I've read it before...
  - rms 17y ago
    >I believe there is less pollution by running an efficient combustion engine than running an electric card that's powered off a coal plant. I'm pretty sure the numbers go the other way. Current voting on comments would put the burden of proof on you to change the minds of the rest. Here is one I googled up very quickly from an industry source. http://www.pluginamerica.org/images/EmissionsSummary.pdf http://www.pluginamerica.org/images/EmissionsSummary.pdf I didn't read it, so I am by no means trying to hold it up as definitive and without any fallacy.
    - proee 17y ago
      Well I did a little research and it looks like when gas powered cars reach 40-50mpg they achieve the same level of pollution as an electric car in terms of net BTUs required to run them. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-schildgen/evs-vs-gas-powered-cars-n_b_123672.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-schildgen/evs-vs-gas-power...
      - chaosmachine 17y ago
        Assuming you're not using solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear power sources.

by proee 17y ago

FYI, electric does not mean green. Most electricity is generated from dirty coal so there's no net benefit from using electric cars until we can generate cleaner power production.

anigbrowl 17y ago

You get greater economies of scale at a central power plant than with numerous distributed motors, plus you only need to install one set of scrubbers. Joule for joule, it's cleaner to run an electric motor on AC than to run your own generator.

proee 17y ago
The point I'm trying to make is that converting cars over to electric right now is not a green solution. I believe there is less pollution by running an efficient combustion engine than running an electric card that's powered off a coal plant. There's a lot of efficiency lossed from starting with the coal, to converting to electricity, to charging the batteries. With a gas powered car, the bulk of the efficiency is in the last stage. Wish I had some more numbers to back this claim but I've read it before...
- rms 17y ago
  >I believe there is less pollution by running an efficient combustion engine than running an electric card that's powered off a coal plant. I'm pretty sure the numbers go the other way. Current voting on comments would put the burden of proof on you to change the minds of the rest. Here is one I googled up very quickly from an industry source. http://www.pluginamerica.org/images/EmissionsSummary.pdf http://www.pluginamerica.org/images/EmissionsSummary.pdf I didn't read it, so I am by no means trying to hold it up as definitive and without any fallacy.
  - proee 17y ago
    Well I did a little research and it looks like when gas powered cars reach 40-50mpg they achieve the same level of pollution as an electric car in terms of net BTUs required to run them. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-schildgen/evs-vs-gas-powered-cars-n_b_123672.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-schildgen/evs-vs-gas-power...
    - chaosmachine 17y ago
      Assuming you're not using solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear power sources.