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Greenhouse Gas Emissions (CO2)

January 15th, 2007 | Posted in: Environment

One hypothesis is that widespread use and adoption of this vehicle will lead to a decrease in CO2 emission and help the global warming problem.  This could occur from a decrease in the use of gasoline assuming the assumption that most drives are less than 40 miles.

The next step in this theory is to determine how much greenhouse gas would be released by power plants that are supplying to the grid the electricity that are charging the Volt’s batteries.  This factor will depend on how the power plant generates its energy.  Most in the U.S. use natural gas, and coal, less common are nuclear and hydroelectric.  I will try to calculate the net effect on CO2 emissions, if say 25% of the population uses this car (or similar).  Any ideas on values for this calculation are appreciated.

Posted by: Lyle

7 Responses to “Greenhouse Gas Emissions (CO2)”


  1. Cllr Martin Seymour
    Vote -1 Vote +1Cllr Martin Seymour     Says:
    January 18th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

    You are assuming that the power will come from the grid. It is quite viable to power the car from a wind turbine or electovolaic solar panels (etc. etc.) on the garage roof overnight. Local or micro generation tends to be less emitive.  

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  2. j.scott barnard
    Vote -1 Vote +1j.scott barnard     Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 11:14 am

    “electovolaic solar panels (etc. etc.) on the garage roof overnight.”

    …assuming you have a home battery system to transfer saved up voltage from the day.  

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  3. Jim Buslepp
    Vote -1 Vote +1Jim Buslepp     Says:
    February 16th, 2007 at 9:29 am

    There’s no need to store the power from photovoltaic (solar) cells. If net meetering is used the power needed to offset what the car draws can be fed to the grid during the day (which is also when it’s most needed as demand peaks about the same time as photovoltaic output peaks) and then drawn back from the grid at night. The effect on carbon emmissions and utility bills is about the same without the need to install and maintain batteries,or the associated losses.

    The same approach could also be used for wind power.  

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  4. Kelley West
    Vote -1 Vote +1Kelley West     Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    u94jwfozra8o450s  

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  5. Nelma
    Vote -1 Vote +1Nelma     Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

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  6. SriMathe
    Vote -1 Vote +1SriMathe     Says:
    May 21st, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    good good  

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  7. home made wind generators
    Vote -1 Vote +1home made wind generators     Says:
    June 27th, 2009 at 1:35 am

    Very useful blog:) will definitely visit soon-  

    (Quote)

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