Hybrids Better for Climate than Leaf, Tesla in Most States | Climate Central Don't know if anyone has posted this here yet
My take: All studies like these are a bit interesting, but in the long run they are nonsense. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. So what if some of the EVs, PHEVs that are produced today happen to get delivered to states that have higher CO2 emissions for their grids? There are other short term benefits (cleaner air in city centers for example). And the LONG TERM benefits are what matters...the overall development of useful, efficient EVs for the mass market. Making the grid cleaner in all the states is a seperate goal which shouldn't be directly tied to the auto industry. Mike
Our electricity suppliers must provide a Green Power option. This ups the rate from $0.28/kWh to $0.32/kwh but the power must be sourced from renewable locations. I live in Victoria (AUS) which still uses archaic brown coal and so a leaf would be worse than a corolla. In comparison if I lived in Tasmania (AUS) which has a lot of hydro, the leaf would easily beat the Prius.
Let alone the improvement in local, street air quality a BEV gives. And use clean electricity and you have clean air all round.
The big problem is that coal is still a major fuel for electricity generation. Coal's share has been diminishing, mostly because natural gas is cheaper (that's partly due to fracking). Natural gas is much cleaner. But it will be decades before coal ceases to be a major fuel for electrical generating stations.
And if any of us have an issue with that, then we can do something about it; install solar pv, use or support a renewable electricity company or even reduce your electricity consumption. The latter can easily be done without much if any compromise.
Congrats for being possibly the first person to mention Tasmania on PC! How many Prii and Tesla can there be in Tasmania? I must check population. I really liked that OP report but believe its older post (2012 data). Believe somewhere we have a much longer thread discussion of that report. Reminds me that I don't think anyone has posted 2013 stats for %coal used in US power gen. Believe 2012 was lowest ever and 2013 and 2014 will be a bit higher.
Apparently our brown coal method produces 3 times as much co2 as America's black coal. Shame shame Australia :-(
How come? Carbon is carbon. The chemical reaction is exactly the same. C + O2 => CO2 I can see it produces 3x of other pollutant due to impurities (sulfur, etc) but not CO2...
I can't remember where I read it but I think it's because our brown coal has a high moisture content the energy density is lower. It is mined in Victoria so it's a cheap solution for a government that isn't to keen on change. I'm doing my part with a Prius anyway.
I knew I was saving money at the pump with my new prius and joining priuschat has been cool and informative but I never knew I was going to get lessons on tree hugging Personally we do need cleaner air But first of all we need to get rid of human trafficking Poverty Proper wages Better living conditions for all And start thinking about the human race as a whole At least try to put a smile on God face maybe he won't send most of us to hell iPhone ?
