China pushes Coal-powered EVs despite Dirtier air quality

We don't have data from all the states. In california it was approximately 39% versus less than 5% for the general population. Since approximately 40% of plug-in electric miles are done in california, even if no other state participated, this amount (16%) is significant. Many of these solar panels were put up either with intention ot buy a plug-in or after buying a plug-in vehicle. In california you don't really get paid for excess capacity, so building more than you use doesn't make much financial sense. In the bay area even without solar pg&e electricity will produce less than half the ghg/mile with a tesla than a prius. With solar its even less.

In Texas and Colarado large percentage of plug-in drivers purchase wind electricity. It all varies state to state, but together it makes a fairly large impact to fuel plug-ins much cleaner than the past US grid, and plug-in drivers electricity gets cleaner each year.

 

Someone described it to me as the electricity grid being like a bowl full of water. Some of the water is brown (coal), some green (renewable) and some blue (nuclear). You dip a small cup in and take some out. It'll be a mix of all three. Or something like that

 

well that's what happens when one lives in their own anicdotal world ... it enables the creation of one's own reality.

Survey: Electric Cars Are Primary Cars, Often Powered by Solar | PluginCars.com

.... not that you'll be able to believe anything outside of the diesel bible thumping world. ... and btw that survey was from 2yrs ago - solar is growing leaps & bounds.


see what I did? nothing anicdotal about someone I known with PV. Otherwise I'd have to mention our PV covers our home's use, the car's use .... & our surplus PV will cover a 2nd plugin, once we run the 9yr old hybrid into the ground. So carry on with whatever version of reality that works
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I think that is a great analogy. At the UT energy center they call coal black and natural gas brown. Now if you participate in building wind farms or build solar, you are adding more green to the bowl, add plug-in demand, the net result is more green added and removed from the bowl. To meet needs that higher demand on the British and texas grid (we study the british grid here because its about the same size as ours, but with different rules) some extra brown gets used with that green.

The UK grid dispatches brown before black, the Texas grid dispatches black before brown but more green retires black. If Texas followed UK rules, it would produce about 15% less ghg.