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The Forum > Article Comments > Electric cars: Major Tom to ground control? > Comments

Electric cars: Major Tom to ground control? : Comments

By Geoff Carmody, published 8/2/2018

One last question. If we shift from petrol mainly to coal to fuel our EVs now, do we increase greenhouse gas emissions or not?

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We are told that the manufacturing of electric cars creates more emissions than conventional car production. Battery life is limited. Batteries are expensive to replace. Batteries have to be disposed of. Silly idea really; just like all the AGM, CO2 scaremongering and other lies.
Posted by ttbn, Thursday, 8 February 2018 8:23:16 AM
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The decider might not be CO2 but petrol prices. When the magic elixir hits $2/L the loudest call will be for an excise cut, not electric cars. It seems obvious to many that millions of EVs being charged overnight is a good case for nuclear baseload. Not so apparently. The electric motorist can transfer charge from their solar home battery. Something call smart charging is another panacea. I think that means if the wind doesn't blow that night you don't have to go to work the next day.

Too bad for nurses, cleaners and security guards working night shifts in the city but living miles out of town. They won't be rich enough to afford the unsubsidised balance on an EV. That will be for inner suburb doctors.
Posted by Taswegian, Thursday, 8 February 2018 9:17:24 AM
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I'm not sure we'll ever build another coal fired power station. Bank after bank have made it clear there's no appetite to invest in coal!

Yes we're burning coal at the minute and recharging electric vehicles at night makes perfect sense and helps keep the turbines winding over most economically and under load, meaning cleaner burns.

Some folk will put a solar array on the roof then add a battery wall to reduce the cost of running and recharging the electric vehicle.

Funding will decide what new power generation becomes the new norm. And for my money that's going to be carbon free, molten salt thorium. And because this combination almost alone allows for the braydon cycle and Hot CO2 turning much smaller more efficient turbines.

Virtually anywhere we choose, making miles and miles of expensive transmission lines redundant!

Given that combination? Carbon free electricity for less than 2 cents PKH! Thorium is the most energy dense material on the planet, is fertile not fissile and can't be used to make a thorium bomb nor produce plutonium.

Some of the products of its reaction could conceivably be used in some sort of bomb. But only after the boffins creating it, had all perished from massive gamma radiation poisoning.

Yes the system does produce high levels of gamma radiation. But simple concrete walls protect the operators from any of it!

I'd have one in my backyard, in the knowledge there's less rogue radiation escaping from a typical reactor than your average coal fired power station, which emits several other nasties as well.

Just because there's an appetite amongst the gormless, conservative, money faced element? Doesn't mean coal is our best choice to make electricity!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Thursday, 8 February 2018 9:37:30 AM
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When the technology is developed to allow photo-voltaic cells to be shaped into car panels, parking or driving your can in the sun will recharge its batteries. Removing the weight of a heavy cast-iron engine block, albeit replacing it with lighter batteries, will reduce the weight needing to be moved. Among other side-effects this will reduce wear and tear on our roads.

If we reduced the excise on diesel fuel for trains and increased it for semi-trailers and road trains, this would also reduce road damage and make electric cars safer.

What is required is a change in public perceptions so that driving a fossil-fuel powered vehicle is less acceptable unless there are strong reasons for their use.
Posted by Brian of Buderim, Thursday, 8 February 2018 10:30:04 AM
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Brian of Buderim

Makes sense....
Posted by diver dan, Thursday, 8 February 2018 11:05:20 AM
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Sorry Brian & diver, it makes no sense at all.

First we can shape photovoltaic cells around a car, but the little power they produce is nothing compared to the energy required. It is a nice exercise in the solar challenge, driving a featherweight toy, with a mini driver across the centre, but it has nothing to do with transport. May be in another few decades, but not now.

We replaced cast iron with alloy engines decades ago, but cars are 35% heavier today. Batteries are much heavier than engines. They are also a problem. Someone here left a rarely used remote control transmitter on 4 weeks ago. Lucky I wanted it, as its Lipo battery had gone flat, & blown up like a balloon, a standard result. In that state they are very prone to ignite. I was lucky, but granny leaving her electric car with a door not shut tight, & thus a light on, could burn her house down.

Most goods are transported by truck, because: 1/ Trains don't go most places, so you still need a truck to deliver stuff to its destination. 2/ Loading & unloading trains is incredibly expensive. 3/ Government picking winners with subsidies & excise/taxes invariably is a disaster. Haven't you noticed your electricity bill recently?

There is not a single saving in any form of pollution, & indeed a large increase in it making electric cars & particularly their batteries.

In view of the above, I think it is your perception that is wrong Brian, too much ideology & not enough facts I'm afraid.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 8 February 2018 12:18:24 PM
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