Posted on 04/18/2011 9:10:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – Charging electric cars at night eases a smog problem caused by fossil-fuel plants which provide the power for these vehicles, researchers reported on Tuesday.
Plug-in cars are viewed as a key tool in the fight for a cleaner planet as they do not emit tailpipe pollution when they run on electricity.
But they contribute indirectly to pollution, as well as global warming, if their electricity comes from a power station that runs on coal, oil or gas.
In a study published in a British journal, scientists in the United States simulated the local impact from "plug-in hybrid electric vehicles," or PHEVs, which are cars that can switch from battery power to petrol.
Their computer model was based on predictions for 2018 of emissions of nitrogen oxides, the basic ingredient for ground-level ozone, in four major cities in Texas: Dallas/Forth Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
Power generation for this grid in 2009 was provided by gas (46 percent), coal (35 percent), nuclear (13 percent) and wind (4.5 percent).
The study compared likely pollution levels when 20 percent of mileage in the region was carried out either by PHEVs or by vehicles that were only petrol-powered.
Regardless of the scenario, ozone pollution improved when PHVs were used, because they did not emit nitrogen oxides.
As for when PHEVs should be recharged, the paper found it was smarter to plug in the vehicle at night.
Extra demand from fossil-fuel power stations at night did cause levels of nitrogen oxides to rise compared to the typically shorter recharging periods in daytime.
But much of the gas emitted at night time had dissipated by daybreak. This eased the smog problem by a small but detectable margin.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Nope. They’ll never find me.
In Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination the protagonist, Gulliver Foyle, "drove" to a "conspicuous consumption party", by having a track laying machine moving ahead of his private (steam!) locomotive & luxury train car.
It was followed by another machine & crew that took up the tracks & ties behind him, to be moved ahead and relaid, until he reached his destnation.
Not exactly "high speed" rail, but it does take you where and when you want to go. ;-')
You "might" want to re-examine that statement. I can guaran-damn-tee you that the wind most decidedly DOES "blow at night". Weather fronts don't give a damn about day/night.
I've spent many a night listening to the wind howl outside as a strong front passes, and woken in the morning to news reports of trees down on roads, houses, and other wind-storm related damage.
Very little electricity is produced using oil. Most generation is done using coal and natural gas, with coal decreasing and natural gas increasing.
Why not just get a small trailer that has a diesel generator that will charge the battery while on the road?
Additionally, smog creation is a chemical reaction influenced by temperature and pressure. For each 10 degrees C you raise the temperature, you double the rate of a chemical reaction. Everything else being equal, if today is 10 degrees C warmer than yesterday, there will be twice as much smog.
They really believe that too. I had a liberal tell me that the electricity cones from electric lines. They have no clue that there has to be something putting the juice INTO the lines.
Produkts ov de US schreul sistimz.
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