Posted on 03/05/2016 5:37:36 AM PST by AU72
The reality is that the all-electric vehicle is less efficient, and has a larger carbon footprint than a Ford F-150. There are only two reliable zero emissions methods for generating power. The first is hydroelectric power which generates only 16% of the world’s electricity; nuclear power, which makes up only 11% of the world’s electrical grid capacity. That means that 73% of worldwide electrical generation is from fossil fuels.
A fossil fuel fired power plant heats water into steam to turn a steam turbine which then turns a generator to produce power; that process is 37% efficient. That is to say 63% of the energy in a unit of fossil fuel is lost due to friction and other thermodynamic laws that have yet to be broken (or nullified by President Obama with an Executive Order).
But the power loss does not stop there. Between the power station and your local neighborhood charging station (which is harder to find than Hillary’s classified e-mails) there is a stepdown station where the 440 voltage in the transmission lines is converted to 220 volts. Then the 220-volt electricity travels along power lines to a transformer which converts the power to 110 volts before going to your meter and finally going from your meter to your home charging station. Each step along the way there is significant power loss. The total loss from the original 37% efficient steam turbine and generator is 66%. That is to say that two-thirds of the power generated is lost from electrical resistance and attenuation along the miles and miles of transmission and power lines. Subtracting two thirds from the original 37% leaves only 13.7%. Yes, my friends, the all-electric vehicle is only 13.7% efficient. The pollution and carbon emissions are simply moved from the tailpipe to the smokestack.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
eCar = Toy
These are not All Electric vehicles. They are coal/oil/etc. powered vehicles.
I’ve thought about this very thin. Every time I see a Prius I see a liberal who bought the global warming hook line and sinker.
Something the greenies and mindless politicians can't figure out.
No nuclear! It could melt down and produce mutant children!
Replace nuclear with bio-power - turn every available acre into producing biomass to power electric cars. We can always import the remaining percentage of food we don’t import now. Make those farmers produce something useful for a change instead of living on tax-payer subsidies!
Also hydropower produced in the PacNW kills salmon and must be torn out. Its for the fish!
And for Pete’s sake, stop winning about rising food and electric costs! If we cannot afford electricity and food we can always live in ditches like poor Turks and eat bark and grass like North Koreans - they do just fine, we we can also! We’re green and proud of it.
“Then the 220-volt electricity travels along power lines to a transformer which converts the power to 110 volts before going to your meter and finally going from your meter to your home charging station.”
Bull $hit!
We all have 220 in our homes, NOT 110.
We use only 1 of the two 110 legs for normal 110 AC power.
I have a 285 foot well pump which operates on 220, and a 220 dryer.
I can’t stand electric cars, but wrong is wrong.
BTW in my small town of Bozeman, MT we have four Tesla ‘pumps’ and we see a fair amount of Tesla’s here.
Actually that’s not an accurate analysis. Wind and solar also don’t burn fossil fuels. Having solar or wind power in combination with an electric vehicle is the way to go. It is an especially good combination if solar recharging stations were available at work places, where the car could be recharged while you worked.
Until charging stations become more widespread, the best solution would be something like a Volt that uses both gas and electricity, thus avoiding range anxiety.
They’re not all liberals. My ultra conservative step dad has a Prius. Got it for the 45+ MPG.
Of course you are correct, and the writer is woefully ignorant.
Before the power on the distribution lines goes through the transformer a hundred feet, or so, from your house, it is measured in thousands of volts (8,000, or so). And the voltage on transmission lines is even higher.
But there are losses from generation point to end user, and E-cars are really coal powered cars.
My thoughts on the Prius:
1) I do not own a Prius but my Dad does.
2) I drove it yesterday for the first time.
3) Its not a bad car and drives fine for a compact.
4) If it really gets 50mph, it leaves just that much more gas for me and my Hummer.
5) If all the liberals (and my Dad is one) would pay the premium to buy a Prius to feel good. We could keep gas under $2 for a long time.
Transmission voltage is also a lot higher than 440 Volts.
Yeah, the writer is a technical retard. The 440 that he speaks doesn’t exist and would never cover enough area. The generators at the nuke that I work at generator 18,000 volts and is stepped up to 230,000 for transmission over the service area. It is stepped down at various sub-stations but still not to such a low level as 440. For example, the power line in front of my house is 13.8 kV. The transformer on the pole in front of my house steps it down to 220 to my meter base and thence to my distribution panel where I can choose to install 2 pole breakers for 220 circuits or single pole breakers for 120 circuits.
Good article.
“The better idea is to continue along the lines of hybrid vehicles which can exploit the “sweet spot” of an engine and achieve significantly higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions than either the conventional internal combustion vehicle or the all-electric vehicle.”
I have no major objection to hybrids. It seems like clever engineering. As I understand it, you brake by turning a turbine that generates electricity to be stored in a battery for later use. But I read once that producing those batteries has adverse environmental impacts. I don’t agree with the EPA that CO2 is a pollutant. So, all in all, I’m not sure that hybrids are so “green.”
“There is an additional little fact that Mr. Musk et al hope is not discovered; that is that most of the nuclear power stations in the U.S. will be shut down in the coming decades.”
Typical of Obama.
In a lot of places, moving pollution from the tailpipe to the smokestack is a very good thing indeed. There are millions of tailpipes within immediate proximity to my lungs and those of my children and other loved ones. Don’t know where the nearest smokestack is, but I understand that we get a lot of our electricity from coal-fired power plants in the Arizona desert. Bad for tortoises, good for me!
The latest report I’ve read may be a year or two old but as I recall, a solar panel has less than a 5% chance of ever producing as much power as it took to produce the panel. And the cell production produces an off gas that won’t go away for several thousand years. Solar is fine for off grid applications but a bad idea for replacing fossil fuels.
How could I disagree with that?...lol
I didn’t know it got that type of gas mileage. Okay guys I get it but I still think that when I see anyone who drives hybrid vehicles...: )
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