Friday, March 12, 2010

Honk? Green power for electric cars
Let's think about it before hitting the road this time.

Here we go again. Green power? A nice little electric car is a great way to get around in a city. I should know since I drove one in Paris for the better part of a decade (eyes right). Whether or not it is a good idea to multiply the kinds of cars that the main players have in mind (definitely not the one you see here) by say one billion or even some notable fraction of that is another matter. Have a look at this good attempt from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and Transport and Environment to make some sense out of this one, where often enthusiasm and self interest way outpace solid information. And then let's talk about it.

Green power for electric cars
Harvesting the climate potential of electric vehicles

- A study by CE Delft
- Commissioned by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and Transport and Environment


Introduction

Transport is the sector with the fastest growing greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. Since 1990 its emissions have increased by 38%. (Including emissions from international shipping and aviation. Source: Statistical Pocketbook Energy and Transport 2009.)

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso recognised this problem in September 2009 in his ‘political guidelines for the next Commission’. He said: “the next Commission needs to maintain the momentum towards decarbonising the transport sector as well as the development of clean and electric cars.”

A number of European countries have launched national programmes and promotion strategies for electric cars ranging from support for research and development to purchase incentives. But current EU policies offer no guarantee that more electric vehicles on Europe’s roads will lead to savings in carbon emissions over coming years.

Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and Transport and Environment have commissioned a study that:
• Analyses the impact of electric vehicles on the European power sector and on CO2 emissions.

• Assesses how policies should be changed in order to maximise greenhouse gas emission savings from the introduction of electric vehicles.
The report is released as the EU begins to develop its electric vehicle initiative and action plan (announced for May 2010).

The study finds that electric vehicles can in principle substantially contribute to decarbonising road passenger transport. They compare favourably to (even advanced) internal combustion engine cars in that:
- They are substantially more efficient than conventional vehicles.
- They can be fuelled with electricity generated from a large range of energy sources, including renewable sources with virtually zero CO2 emissions.

- They have no direct emissions.

- They can charge up with energy generated by renewables when there is a surplus of supply.
However, increasing the number of electric vehicles without a change in current legislation could result in:
- An increase in oil consumption and CO2 emissions in the EU car sector, compared to a situation without electric vehicles.

- An increase in coal- and nuclear-based electricity production, instead of an increase in energy production from renewable sources.


Below are the main findings of the report and its recommendations to ensure that electric vehicles become an effective tool to reduce CO2 emissions.

1. Ensuring that electric vehicles reduce CO2 emissions from the car sector

Existing EU legislation on car emissions allows manufacturers to use sales of electric vehicles to offset the continued production of gas-guzzling cars. So-called ‘super credits’ for electric vehicles allow carmakers to sell 3.5 high-emitting cars for every electric car they sell, without affecting the overall CO2 target for their fleet. The report shows that this has the effect of actually increasing oil consumption and associated CO2 emissions, compared to a situation without electric vehicles. It finds that increasing sales of electric cars to 10% of total car sales could lead to a 20% increase in both the oil consumption and CO2 emissions of the overall fleet (conventional and electric vehicles).

The so-called ‘super credits’ for electric vehicles also reduce the contribution of electric vehicles to reaching the transport target of the EU’s renewable energy directive. The directive requires that 10% of the energy supply for the transport sector in 2020 come from renewable sources (biofuels and renewable electricity). Biofuels and renewable electricity for vehicles are in direct competition to achieve this target. As long as biofuels remain largely unsustainable, renewable electricity is the greenest option.

Policy recommendations:
a) Abolish so-called super credits for electric vehicles granted under EU legislation on CO2 emissions from cars and under forthcoming legislation on CO2 emissions from vans.

b) Ensure binding and ambitious 2020 targets for CO2 emissions from cars and vans that will increase overall efficiency for both combustion and electric vehicles.

2. Ensuring that the additional electricity demand resulting from the uptake in electric vehicles is met by additional renewable electricity

Carbon emissions from electric vehicles depend on the type of electricity they consume. When charged on renewable electricity, electric vehicles have a greenhouse gas impact of nearly zero. Charging them on electricity produced with coal results in equal or higher emissions than for comparable conventional vehicles.

The additional power demand for electric vehicles is expected to be relatively low. Assuming an uptake of up to 30 million battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on EU roads, the increase would be less than 3% compared to current EU demand. But without demand management, any increase in energy consumption could simply increase fossil fuel and nuclear energy production. (Increasing electricity demand from transport is therefore likely to have an upward effect on the CO2 price in the EU’s emissions trading scheme. This effect has not been fully studied in this report, but is expected to remain small in the coming decade, as the additional electricity demand will be limited.)

In order to avoid these market distortions, EU member states should boost the supply of renewable electricity. They should also monitor and report estimates of the share of renewable electricity used in cars for the purpose of reaching their 10% renewable energy transport target. This would stimulate the deployment of smart charging technologies that favour renewables and create an attractive market for electric vehicles.

Policy recommendations:
c) Encourage member states to raise their renewable electricity targets in line with the additional demand for electric vehicles.

d) Encourage member states to report the estimated share of renewable electricity actually used in electric cars, and not simply the share of renewables in national electricity production.


3. Enabling the use of renewable electricity in electric vehicles
To enable a greater share of renewable electricity in the power mix and in electric vehicles, the electricity system should be made more flexible to allow for the integration of energy from variable renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy. Electric vehicles can play an important role in this development, as they combine long periods of connection to the grid with large storage capacity in their batteries. But they will only do so if they are equipped with on¬board metering systems. These would help them manage electricity input and primarily be charged when surplus electricity – mostly from renewables like wind and solar – is available on the power grid. Unless charging is properly managed, electric vehicles will not play a role in enabling the future renewable energy system.

To guarantee that car manufacturers apply the necessary technology for smart metering, the technology needs to be standardised and enforced through EU legislation. The standardisation and compatibility of such hardware and the ability of cars and electricity grids to exchange information would guarantee that drivers of electric vehicles could charge up anywhere.

Policy recommendations:
e) Develop smart cars and smart grids that are able to exchange data and that favour the use of renewable electricity.

f) Standardise charging technology to ensure that every driver can charge up anywhere in Europe.

# # #

Press release:
www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/green-electric-cars-08-02-10 Report: www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/reports/green-power-for-electric-cars-08-02-10

Contacts:
Greenpeace – Franziska Achterberg: Greenpeace EU transport policy advisor, +32 (0)498 362403 (mobile), franziska.achterberg@greenpeace.org.

Transport & Environment – Jos Dings: Director, Transport & Environment, +32 (0)498 51 53 19 (mobile), jos.dings@transportenvironment.org.

CE Delft – Bettina Kampman: Senior researcher/consultant,
+31 (0)15-2150171, +31 (0)6 21520939 (mobile), kampman@ce.nl.

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12 comments:

  1. You don’t have to be an engineer or energy expert to realize that electric cars are a dead end or at least a diversion from the kind of change we need in transportation, mobility and access.

    Just think of the life-cycle costs of producing millions of steel and petroleum product based vehicles with batteries made of toxic materials and then disposing of or recycling all that stuff. That’s before you add in the energy cost incurred by driving the durn things.

    If current trend toward increased private vehicle ownership continues to grow along with worldwide population, we will be seeing increased traffic congestion, traffic deaths and injuries as well as other external costs in road maintenance, traffic management, parking, emergency services, land use degradation, suburban sprawl, etc. And continued dependence on automobiles.

    What we need instead are alternatives to driving such as transit-oriented development, complete streets, public transportation access, car sharing and bike-sharing. Privately owned cars should become something that you will see mainly in museums and parades.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Which came first, the large wind turbine or the electric car?

    Wind turbine manufacturers, championed by environmental groups, have one goal,
    profit. It is in their interest to promote increased, not decreased energy use.
    The more energy we use the more large wind turbines there will be and high
    energy demand may present a barrier to the more efficient and less visual forms
    of micro generation.

    I believe that the wind turbine industry is championing the electric car, not
    because it is environmentally good, but because they need somewhere to store the
    otherwise excess energy they will generate at times of insufficient demand. Do
    we want to fill our coastlines and hillsides with huge turbines so that the car
    system/"old mobility" can continue?

    Ian Perry, UK

    ReplyDelete
  3. Following up on the debate over the link between large wind turbines and the electric car I have some further information

    The electric car will require us to produce vast amounts of energy, hence the interest from wind turbine companies. Wind turbines have always been a little controversial due to their shadow, noise, visual impact and their affect on bats and birds. Energy from large wind turbines is unpredictable and requires a grid of power lines to take it from often remote locations to where is will be used.

    The environmental case against wind turbines is strengthening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srPoOU6_Z4

    The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports: A study cited by Birdlife International shows that, each year, power lines can be responsible for up to 800 bird kills per mile. Vast numbers of other birds are killed by turbines each year, as are countless thousands of bats, which also seem to be drawn to wind farms, and which recent studies have shown die with their lungs distended by air pressure from the blades.

    ...One particular scheme that sparked a long and fierce controversy – and was mildly opposed by the RSPB – was a wind farm now under construction at Edinbane on the Isle of Skye, on hills known to attract young golden eagles and sea eagles. A first run of the SNH “collision model” showed that, over 25 years, this was likely to kill 137 golden eagles, nearly 10 times the permissible conservation limit of 15. But when SNH revised a key parameter, the “avoidance rate”, from 95 per cent to 98 per cent, and the developer removed nine turbines from its plan, the result was that predicted eagle deaths fell to exactly 15, allowing the scheme to go ahead.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7437040/Eco-friendly-but-not-to-eagles.html

    Ian Perry, UK

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jerry Schneider, USAMonday, 15 March, 2010

    I think a far better approach is the three vehicle approach being
    pursued at MIT's Media Lab: Green Wheels, Roboscooter and City Car.
    It's the subject of a new book by Prof. William J. Mitchell. It uses
    a "sharing approach", pick the vehicle type that fits your trip
    needs, no need to purchase vehicles altho you can if you like.
    Biggest problem is the empty vehicle redistribution problem but they
    have devised some approaches to solving it.

    Title: Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Mobility in the 21st Century

    http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12044&mode=toc

    Intro chapter is available on-line, 9 pp.

    - Jerry Schneider -
    Innovative Transportation Technologies
    http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans

    ReplyDelete
  5. An electric car story, there is money here, if only there was money in sharing, reducing the need to travel or to buy new vehicles?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7055720.ece

    Also a discussion spawned by the article on Urban75.com picking up the point about Nuclear power.

    "the power from two nuclear plants, or their equivalent,would be enough to run every vehicle in South Korea indefinitely, the institute says"

    As has been pointed out this seems very low?

    "Average car driving at speed is using in the order of 50kw.

    New generation nuclear power station 1.5 GW

    = 30,000 cars"

    Do you know whether anyone has worked this out properly?

    Rory McMullan, UK

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ian, it's true that turbine manufacturers would like to have strong markets for their products. There is plenty of market just in replacing electrical generating plants that use fossil fuels, including uranium.

    This is a goal I support, together with distributed micro-generation. I don't think the two exclude each other.

    Convincing people to live closer to where they work and play, and to use much less energy from non-renewable sources, is where our efforts are needed.

    It's also true that wind (and solar) power generation need a storage medium so
    that production can meet the timing of demand. To me, battery electric transportation, and grid powered trains and buses, is a beautiful part of the solution to the storage problem. The replacement of fossil transportation fuels
    with renewable and much more efficient electrical power is needed. Fortunately,
    all those batteries can serve a valuable second purpose by absorbing excess power generated when the wind blows and the sun shines, and returning it to the grid when the wind stops blowing or the sun goes down. This is the same
    principle that nearly every off-the-grid home uses.

    Jerry McIntire, USA

    ReplyDelete
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