ConcernedScientists

Most of Kentucky is in the region covered by the Southeast Electric Reliability Council -Tennessee Valley grid. The most recent data on that electric grid shows about half of the power comes from coal (54%), (down 5% from the last report).

No region in the US today produces electricity solely from coal, and we’re seeing the amount of electricity produced by coal decreasing across the US. In 2004 it was about 50% and in 2013 coal generation in the U.S. fell to under 40%. With policies like the Clean Power Plan finalized by the EPA this year, we expect the emissions from coal to decrease even more in the coming years.

With less coal electricity generation and more renewable electricity generation, like wind and solar, we expect health impacts across the board, not just global warming emissions, to decrease. In short, yes, we think EVs are clean and getting cleaner as we shift away from coal and add more renewables to the grid. One great thing about EVs is that as the grid gets cleaner, ALL electric cars get cleaner, not just the new ones.

Funny, I was just trying to figure out the reasons why I hadn’t gone solar yet. There are a few: sun/shade (do I have enough of the one and not too much of the other?), orientation (my roof doesn’t face south), and, of course, cost. But for each of those, it’s pretty easy to push back on myself: I really haven’t gotten that part of the roof assessed, even though it’s not a hard thing to do. My west-southwest-facing roof actually has some advantages, at least in terms of the electricity system as a whole (more generation later in the day). And the costs (as we’ll talk about shortly) have dropped an amazing amount just over the last 4-5 years, plus there are all kinds of leasing options.

So I’d say the biggest factor for a lot of people is inertia: people don’t have solar because they don’t have solar. In the big picture, overcoming that requires more public education about solar’s costs and benefits. It also requires more pioneers; studies show that if your neighbor gets solar, you’re much more likely to get it yourself.

So thanks, pioneers.

-John

The most surprising result was how quickly the additional manufacturing emissions from EVs, mostly from producing the lithium ion battery, are offset by the lower emissions from driving the EV compared to a similar gasoline vehicle. We found, on average, it takes the 84-mile range battery electric vehicle only 6 months to offset the manufacturing emissions, and the 265-mile range battery electric vehicle about 16 months to offset the manufacturing emissions due to the larger battery required to get the longer range.

My favorite is the liger! -RN