I found a nice post about the Dept of Energies concerns and beliefs about the ability of the grid to handle electric cars.
Check it out here:
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
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.
