Don't plug in or you'll get arrested!

[ksnogas2112]

@Donald...try Iceland--- it's a wiki so check the sources but generally true

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Iceland" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[donald]

@Donald...try Iceland

OK, fair 'nuf. Norway is good too, in that case. They are 'blessed' with hydrothermal resources that are uncommon and not really possible for others.

 

[Nubo]

Where will all the electricity be coming from? Last I looked, the only country with a serious alternative mix of electrical generation without fossil fuel dependency was France with 85% nuclear electricity.

At 550 g of CO2 per kWh in the US, if you are getting 60 mile range from 21kWh of charge then that's equivalent to an ICE emitting 115 g/km CO2. Most small petrol and diesel cars in Europe can now emit less than this.

An end to tail-pipe emissions can only happen with electricity generation not dependent on burning fossil fuels. Some may be lucky to be able to install PV, but not enough to imagine that ICE cars can be done away with as a thing of the past, any time soon. Even if electricity generation does become less dependent on fossil fuel, in general an EV owner still needs their own private residence with driveway where they can do their overnight charging.

For penetration into the market of people in apartments, tower blocks, etc., there would need power sockets galore everywhere to cater for everyone to have an EV, and not forgetting a right to plug in wherever you find one.

Yes, all that will need to be addressed. One might well have asked Henry Ford if he were crazy. My God man, you'd need a gasoline station on every streetcorner!

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days.
Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days,
nor in the life of this Administration.
Nor even perhaps, in our lifetime on this planet.
But let us begin.

 

[imposter]

if we don't see CO2 emitting tail pipes as a thing of the past, sooner rather than later, that's how we will be living in the world.

Where will all the electricity be coming from? Last I looked, the only country with a serious alternative mix of electrical generation without fossil fuel dependency was France with 85% nuclear electricity.

At 550 g of CO2 per kWh in the US, if you are getting 60 mile range from 21kWh of charge then that's equivalent to an ICE emitting 115 g/km CO2. Most small petrol and diesel cars in Europe can now emit less than this.

An end to tail-pipe emissions can only happen with electricity generation not dependent on burning fossil fuels. Some may be lucky to be able to install PV, but not enough to imagine that ICE cars can be done away with as a thing of the past, any time soon. Even if electricity generation does become less dependent on fossil fuel, in general an EV owner still needs their own private residence with driveway where they can do their overnight charging.

For penetration into the market of people in apartments, tower blocks, etc., there would need power sockets galore everywhere to cater for everyone to have an EV, and not forgetting a right to plug in wherever you find one.

Yikes! That's a lot more CO2 per kWh than we put out here in Ontario. Even if I charged at a constant rate for a full 24 hour period the average would only be around 120g of CO2 per kWh (based on published data I found). Since I usually only need to charge at off-peak times, between midnight and 7 am, I am more likely to be getting my electrons at a rate of under 40 g of CO2 per kWh. In Manitoba, where I used to live, I believe only about 2% of our electricity came from fossil fuels, so the CO2 per kWh there would be as low as 15 g, iirc. And yet Nissan seems to be allocating hardly any Leafs to Canada. Sigh.

edit: Actually, based on some possibly a bit out of date info https://www.bullfrogpower.com/products/Bullfrog Power Electricity Emission Calculator.pdf, Manitoba could be as low as 3.3 g.

 

[dgpcolorado]

OK, fair 'nuf. Norway is good too, in that case. They are 'blessed' with hydrothermal resources that are uncommon and not really possible for others.

Both are small population countries: Iceland about 315,000 and Norway about 4.7 million — about the same as my state here. So France is a good example of a larger population country that has low CO2 electricity production.

 

[RonDawg]

So France is a good example of a larger population country that has low CO2 electricity production.

They do, but as mentioned earlier most of their energy is nuclear-power-generated. We could go that route except for that pesky thing called radiation. Politically, nuclear energy is not popular. There are very problematic issues to deal with like nuclear waste storage and disposal, and the destruction of the Fukushima plant in the Japanese tsunami, Chernobyl, and our own Three Mile Island disaster have made Americans understandably nervous about increasing nuclear-power generation.

 

[planet4ever]

Yeah, well it's nice to be nervous about a few thousand people who might be harmed if we're not careful with nuclear, but what I'm worried about is a few billion who aren't going to make it at all if we don't stop destroying the planet.

Ray

 

[LeftieBiker]

Yeah, well it's nice to be nervous about a few thousand people who might be harmed if we're not careful with nuclear, but what I'm worried about is a few billion who aren't going to make it at all if we don't stop destroying the planet.

Ray

If it *were* just a "few thousand" you might have a point.