If you've driven, owned, or even thought of owning an electric car, the chances are
you've had at least one person come up to you and say
Electric cars, well electric cars aren't clean are they?
Because they run on electricity and where does electricity come from?
It comes from COAL.
Yeah.
You burn coal and that makes the electricity and you put it down the wires and then it
goes into the car and of course the batteries are toxic beyond belief, so personally, I
would prefer to stick with my diesel.
1989, it's a good runner....
And then if you're like me, you sigh, take a deep breath and try to tell them in as nice
a possible way that studies have concluded even with some coal mixed in, electric cars
are still cleaner than petrol cars because of the current power grid mix, note that the
grid is getting cleaner, and remind them that a total of six kilowatt-hours of electricity
is used to refine every gallon of petrol, and remind them that most electric car owners
do everything they can to run their cars off renewable electricity from solar panels on
their roof of a special green energy tariff… and then you sigh again because you know they're
going to keep going on about the coal thing.
I'm not driving one of those dirty electric cars...
Coal powered, they are... pffft.
But last Friday in the UK, something very special happened indeed: the UK National Grid
pulsed with electricity for an entire day without a single joule of it coming from a
coal-powered fire station.
What's more, it's the first time in one hundred and thirty-five years that my home
country hasn't burned coal to produce electricity for an entire day.
Why this is so important, and what it means for the future of plug-in vehicles, is coming
right next.
Hi there!
I'm Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield from Transport Evolved, and today we're celebrating the
news that the UK's national electricity grid managed to run for a whole day last Friday
without burning any coal, an important milestone as the country transitions its energy generation
mix away from fossil fuels and onto cleaner, greener alternatives.
Unlike other parts of the world, where burning coal to produce electricity remains a mainstay
of the power grid, the UK has been making a gradual shift away from coal power since
the 1990s.
Indeed, last year, the Uk government announced that it intends to be completely coal-free
by twenty twenty-five, a move that will see more renewable energy coming online to take
up the slack alongside renewed interest in Nuclear power, as well as a continued shift
towards power plants operating on natural gas.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, and you're right…
It is.
And on the face of it, extracting and burning natural gas for the purposes of electricity
does still produce greenhouse gas emissions.
It's responsible for about half the CO2 per kilowatt-hour than coal emits, but while
it's emissions, it's a step in the right direction.
Obviously, a fully-renewable grid, made up of decentralized microgeneration (essentially
everyone having their own set of photovoltaic solar panels on their roof and a battery backup
system like a Tesla Powerwall in the garage) would be preferable.
And we're certainly moving that way as a society, which is a very good thing for both
electric car owners and society as a whole, because a cleaner grid means electric cars
get cleaner to drive.
In short, while petrol cars tend to get more dirty as they age (as they become more inefficient
and their engines get more and more worn) electric cars will get cleaner as they age,
since the trend is toward cleaner generation methods for the electricity they rely on to
operate.
That's already happening.
In fact, back in twenty fifteen, a quarter of the UK's power needs were met by sources
of renewable energy, outstripping coal for the first time.
We're not even two years further down the line, and coal use is dwindling to insignificant
amounts.
Or to put it another way, electric cars driven and charged today in the UK are far, far more
environmentally friendly than they were just two years ago.
I've been checking the National grid demand this morning while writing this script for
today's show, and it's currently hovering at 1.7 percent or so, while wind power is
way up at nearly sixteen percent.
Being late evening in the UK, solar is only about two percent, but usually it's much
higher, with pumped storage, hydroelectric and biomass all adding up to just under eight
percent.
What about other power sources?
Well, given the switch away from coal and other other sources of power, natural gas
has gone up (between two fifths and a half on average) while Nuclear power plants provide
about a fifth of all UK electricity.
Nuclear counts as 'clean' energy if we talk about emissions, but it does of course
create all kinds of political and environmental problems when it comes to disposing of nuclear
waste, not to mention the risks associated with plant failure or natural disasters.
(Three mile island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have certainly taught us that).
Right now, the UK government seems more interested in nuclear and gas than anything else, but
it doesn't mean that renewables aren't growing.
Indeed, while Natural gas -- and the fracking culture the UK Government is keen to embrace
-- could give the nation cheaper energy for a while, there are some big problems with
natural gas that means the UK will need to transition that natural gas generation to
more sustainable solutions.
For example, given natural gas contains a lot (and I do mean a lot) of methane, if it's
not properly extracted from the ground or handled correctly, it emits a butt ton of
methane into the atmosphere, which, as it's even better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide,
is most definitely a problem for the planet.
And as one twenty thirteen academic paper for the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change concluded, methane leaks from the extraction and transportation
of natural gas must be kept below 3.2 percent in order for natural gas to remain cleaner
than coal.
And only proper regulation will ensure that actually happens.
Worse still, as the Union of Concerned scientists point out, replacing coal and nuclear power
with natural gas (a trend in several countries) won't have all that major an impact on total
emissions.
Yes, emissions will be less than they would be with coal, but they won't be reduced
enough (when combined with predicted electricity demand rises that have nothing to do with
electric cars) to make a difference to global warming.
In other words, renewable energy needs to be the focus, and it's up to us to make
sure it remains the focus moving forward.
As to coal and electric cars (and why Friday was so awesome?)
Burning coal for electricity is inefficient and produces a lot of carbon dioxide.
And because Friday didn't see any coal being burnt in the UK, an electric car charged on
Friday in the UK was far cleaner than it was two years ago.
And that's a fantastic thing worthy of celebrating.
So what can you do as an electric car owner?
Well, the first thing is to sign up for a clean energy tariff if your local utility
offers one.
Make sure that you charge your car from one hundred percent renewable energy if you can,
or pick a power mix that is as low as possible on fossil-fuel energy.
Second, consider saving up for your own microgeneration at home (if you can) with photovoltaic solar
panels and a battery backup system.
And if you can't do that, consider investing in a local energy cooperative that works to
promote renewables above other forms of energy.
Do you feel better knowing that less energy in the grid is coming from fossil fuels?
Do you own an electric car -- and where does the power come from that you use to power
it?
And what do you think the energy mix of the future will look like?
Leave your thoughts in the Comments below, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe,
tell your friends about the show, and if you like what your saw today, please consider
helping me to make more shows like this by making a monthly donation through Patreon.
I've included a link below, and a clickable one at the end of today's video.
And finally, I'd like to thank the wonderful Robert Llewellyn for his cameo in today's
video.
Do check out his totally awesome Fully Charged channel, a link for which is also coming right
up.
I'll be back tomorrow, but until then, thanks for joining me, I'm Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
and don't forget to Keep Evolving!
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