We had only one last summer, but that frequency might pick up, as the global keeps warming.
One nice thing about working at the office is that it has backup generators, which are deployed much more frequently.
Majority coal states:
12 Colorado - 54.3%
11. New Mexico - 54.8%
10. Wisconsin - 55.1%
9. Ohio - 57.2%
8. Nebraska - 59.8%
7. North Dakota - 64.5%
6. Utah - 70.5%
5. Indiana - 73.2%
4. Kentucky - 78.2%
3. Missouri - 79.8%
2. Wyoming - 85.7%
- West Virginia - 92.2%
I have no idea why the formatting is weird on West Virginia, but I had a heckuva time getting the numbers to go down instead of up, so I’m not messing with it.
Anyway, probably in most of those states (and perhaps a few others) coal is the swing production such that excess demand is met with coal.
Source is a couple of years old so the numbers may have shifted if new green energy initiatives have come online since.
Yep, making the batteries has an environmental cost. But, in total, the operating + manufacturing carbon footprint of ICE vehicles exceeds that of EVs, even considering carbon cost of electricity production. Will the increase in electricity usage in transport outstrip the conversion to low-carbon generation of renewables? The best estimates so far are that the de-carbonization of electricity generation will outpace increase in usage.
CNG vehicles exist, but CNG is typically fossil fuel sourced.
There is still potential for paradigm shifts in batteries that will use less lithium and increase energy density. ICE efficiency is close to limits. Increasing CAFE standards will eventually result in smaller cars, which US consumers have chosen against.
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Modern coal power plants are absurdly more efficient in converting coal to electricity to miles than ICE engines.
And as you stated later, coal is not a huge percentage of the power grid in most areas, and many places where it does exist, you can often choose to purchase your electricity from non-coal sources
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What about the environmental impact of disposing of spent batteries?
My mom’s 11 year old hybrid needs a new battery (predicted to last 10 years so she got an extra year out of it). In addition to being an expensive repair, it also means disposing of the original battery somehow. I think those things are pretty bad for the environment if the chemicals leach into the soil, but that’s not measured in the car’s carbon footprint.
Also when you add in the carbon for the battery, you really ought to double it since most will go through 2 batteries in their lifetime even if it’s not the original owner who replaces the battery. Someone will.
I believe that is correct.
He couldn’t figure it out because our number seemed too low to be annual but too high to be semi-annual. He really thought we were pulling his leg when we said monthly.
I had heard of a program where batteries were not in good enough shape for a car still, but still had useful life for aggregating and connecting to the grid, wonder if that is still a thing.
That would be cool!
There are startups working on battery recycling, and I think Telsa is also starting to look in that direction. Not sure what the big battery producers (LGChem, Panasoinc, BYD, etc) are doing.
If you want to do fleet comparisons of carbon footprint, you have to consider the average life at disposal. 20 might be high for ICE, and the stats don’t yet exist for EVs.
One downside of Telsa’s structural battery approach (which it will be moving to as its 4680 cells come into production) is the battery life will likely be shorter than vehicle life. Not sure how that will be addressed. Structural batteries definitely make the car harder to repair.
If the EV batteries last 10 years then I suspect most will be disposed by the end of the second battery’s life. I doubt many would put a third battery into an EV.
So it’ll probably be lumpier than ICE’s. But I’m guessing both are in the vicinity of 20 years these days.
I think quality ICE’s tend to stay on the road longer than 20 years if they don’t crash and get totaled. I’m not sure how much crashes would bring down the average though, and obviously those count in terms of disposals / environmental impact.
Potato powered clocks?
I have not heard this claim before. I would have expected the complete opposite.
What about all the people who live in apartments/condos without garages? It is not practical to give every parking spot in the lot a charging device. In 25 years, when you can only buy electric vehicles, what will these people do?
This is a reasonable question, but I suspect that landlords and HOAs will at some point be forced to add outlets to parking lots if plug in vehicles become the norm.
The market, filled with EV-only lessees, will force it.
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I got wondering about this, so I found the following EIA power plant efficiency
So from 2009-2019, coal gen was about 32% efficient in coal energy to electric energy provided based on eia figures.
ICE engine efficiency is generally in the 20%-35% range (sorry just wiki, no stronger sources pop out to me)
This isn’t a direct comparison, because you have the transmission loss from coal plant to charge point. There is also loss in charging battery (you end up with less in your battery than a paid charger would bill you for due to heat from resistance). How this compares with energy consumption in gas transport (and a tiny amount of evaporation in fueling) is another question entirely.
Maybe I just bought into “Big Coal’s” propaganda that they efficiently turn coal into energy. 
My quick googling doesn’t find anything clearly supports my prior claim. Oops. Much of the analysis breaks down on assumptions regarding transportation of fuel, coal and energy along with the cost of mining, drilling and exploration.
One thing that was clear reading all this that in any US market, even those with a heavy dependence on coal, EV have an advantage over ICE.
You can see from the EIA numbers that NatGas is a good bit more efficient in conversion of fuel to KWh than coal/petroleum. But efficiency isn’t the only measure one may wish to consider. Carbon footprint is another. EV operation can be very low carbon footprint if you use distributed solar to charge, for instance. ICE operation could be if run on pure ethanol, but that has other resource issues attached.
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This is not practical for many, perhaps most consumers. Apartment dwellers, condo dwellers, townhome dwellers, or anyone who lives in an orny HOA. In my town, I can only have solar panels on the rear facing facet of my roof, which faces north, so it’s not practical.
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I’m surprised to see so many new developments (just back from a weekend trip) NOT having large, south-facing roofs. It tells me that whoever is signing off on permits (if there even is someone) is not looking at the solar feasibility or lacks the power to require them.
It is a major requirement on the next house I buy. Or, I’m buying a lot and having one built to my specifications.