Quote:
Originally Posted by PIMking
Great Idea, Just hope that you electric company isn't using coal to burn for electricity....
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I hate this argument.
The ICE is something like 25-30% efficient. A good coal power plant can be something like 45-55% efficient. It is also localized in one place, meaning that economies of scale come into play, and any technological upgrades can be done to raise efficiency. This is far easier than forcing every car owner to go and get an upgrade at a cost that will have no performance benefit, but only a fluffy environmental benefit.
Also, having a significant load at night will help balance out the demand for electricity over the day, meaning that you're not using 80% capacity during the day, and having to shut off or waste electricity during the night. This would also help improve efficiency, and could even bring newer technologies into play like wind, where you can't control when you're getting the electricity.
On a more direct comparison, if we assume the energy loss of transporting the electricity generated from the power plant and the cost of trucking fuel to gas stations is the same, you're basically having to burn two units of oil per every unit of coal to get the same amount of energy. While coal is dirty, having to burn twice as much oil equalizes the emission rate.
Plug-in cars (whether purely electric or some sort of hybrid/hydrogen mix) are the future. There are many other issues with them at the current moment, but the fact that they draw their energy from a fossil fuel is not one of them.