How Green is your EV?

[RonDawg]

(apologies if this was posted before)

A common complaint the EV naysayers mention is that while your EV may not emit any pollution, you are simply moving the pollution source over to power generation plants. But not everybody in the US gets coal-fired power.

This tool lets you know your greenhouse gas emissions as a function of the MPG of an ICEV: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/ev-emissions-tool#.WWMYruhlDxC

My eGolf charged at my home is as clean as an ICEV that gets 109 MPG according to that.

 

[Verkehr]

Interesting, also in socal where we are mostly powered by natural gas so my result was 109.

For someone living in Denver, however, it reports 43 MPG. That's a dirty grid!

 

[GetOffYourGas]

According to this, my Leaf rates at 157MPG

Reality is, it's even cleaner. I have solar panels on my roof, and I pay a little extra each month so that the rest of my electricity comes from a local wind farm.

 

[Rsolaregolf]

Says ours is 102mpg but we almost exclusively charge at home that's 100% solar from our AllEarth tracker.

 

[RonDawg]

Interesting, also in socal where we are mostly powered by natural gas so my result was 109.

For someone living in Denver, however, it reports 43 MPG. That's a dirty grid!

Yup. Colorado gets electricity almost exclusively from coal power. Hawaii, also almost exclusively coal-reliant, is a similarly dirty 43 MPG.

According to this, my Leaf rates at 157MPG

Using a friend's Seattle zip code, the eGolf only rates 83 MPG. That surprises me as I thought the Puget Sound area tended to use hydroelectric power.

Another friend's Las Vegas zip code surprisingly gets an 83 MPG rating. Despite popular belief, Las Vegas does NOT get most of its power from Hoover Dam; that electricity was promised primarily to SoCal and Phoenix before construction was even complete, as Vegas at that time consisted of little more than the present-day Fremont Street area. There was no "Strip" back then.

So I always believed that Vegas gets much if most if its electricity from coal-fired plants like the one on the Navajo Nation near Page, AZ. However NV Energy's map shows most of their plants are actually natural gas fired:

 

[johnnylingo]

I have solar panels on my roof, and I pay a little extra each month so that the rest of my electricity comes from a local wind farm.

It also fails to take in to account day vs. night charging via the grid. My understand is night power is more eco-friendly because the power must be produced, and it's essentially "wasted energy" not to use it.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

The other thing it does is assume that nuclear is very clean. While it's true that it has no carbon emissions, it causes other problems notable with waste. I live in an area heavily served by nuclear, which is why my number is so high.

This is the problem with tying "green-ness" with only one or a few parameters.

 

[RonDawg]

The other thing it does is assume that nuclear is very clean. While it's true that it has no carbon emissions, it causes other problems notable with waste. I live in an area heavily served by nuclear, which is why my number is so high.

This is the problem with tying "green-ness" with only one or a few parameters.

The link only talks in terms of CO2 emissions. Yes there are other environmental factors at play, such as the mining of the metals necessary for battery production.

Nuclear is clean in terms of emissions, but yes there are different issues to contend with. But then again so does hydroelectric (fish migration, effects on ecosystems downstream), some forms of solar (the Ivanpah plant near Vegas being notorious for frying birds mid-air), and wind (birds getting hit by the blades).

 

[whyeGolf]

My number is 58 even though we are 100% renewable Niagara Falls electric source.

So your telling me that the additional green-house gas is due to battery manufacturing, etc.
If the vehicle was manufactured in Germany, then I should only be focused on what local greenhouse gases I generate.
Does it ever go to zero?