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A comment on Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare. Parent comment

Re:Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare by toomuchtodo on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @04:30PM (#18506263)
There is no electrical generation source that is worse than oil, for any electric car. Only 12-30% [1] (EDIT: replaced 1% after correction from nradov) of energy makes it to the wheels when burning petroleum to propel a vehicle forward.

Your electric car will get cleaner over time (90-95% of new generation coming online each year are renewables), your petrol vehicle will burn petrol forever.

[1] https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare by 2trill2spill on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @04:44PM (#18506352)
> There is no electrical generation source that is worse than oil, for any electric car. Only 1% of energy makes it to the wheels when burning petroleum to propel a vehicle forward.

What? You say "there is no electrical generation source that is worse than oil" then say "Only 1% of energy makes it to the wheels when burning petroleum to propel a vehicle forward." A gasoline powered car is not an electrical generation source so I'm sure what your saying, especially because coal is a much dirtier source for generating electricity. Also a quick google search shows that gasoline powered vehicles have a tank to wheel efficiency around 16%[1][2] which is much higher then the 1% you stated.

And my original point was, If a electric vehicle is being charged from a dirty source like a coal plant then it can be more polluting then driving an efficient petroleum car. Coal is more polluting then Oil when burned and converting the heat to electricity is a huge hit to efficiency. Only about 30% of the energy from coal is turned into electricity. Plus you have transmission loss from getting the electricity from the power plant to the EV.

[1]: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/10/electric-car-myth-buste...

[2]: https://matter2energy.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/wells-to-whee...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare by rascul on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @04:52PM (#18506409)
> A gasoline powered car is not an electrical generation source

Just a minor thing, and doesn't change your point, but have you considered that cars have alternators which use the turning of the engine to generate electricity?

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Re:Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare by nradov on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @04:39PM (#18506319)
You're way off. Modern cars turn about 30% of the energy in gasoline into forward motion. However, electric cars do have a lower carbon impact in almost all cases.
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