Plug it in, Plug it in
I have plug-in hybrids on the brain. Traditional hybrid cars couple electric and gas-powered motors to generate propulsion for a car. They can recapture momentum during braking as electricity to charge a small set of batteries. Plug-ins, unlike current hybrids, have bigger batteries and can be charged off the electrical grid.
Ian Wright (founder of electric car-maker Wrightspeed and maker of the X1 prototype) was recently at Squid Labs doing a talk, discussing the potential for upcoming hybrid tech. Plug-ins with sufficient battery capacity could allow drivers to drive 100 miles or so on a charge, but also have a small gas-powered generator for longer drives. Typical commuters would basically be using an electric car, but with longer range for the occasional road trips.
Using electricity is certainly cheaper (half that of gas, even including the amortized cost of batteries), but aren’t we just shifting the pollution elsewhere? Mostly likely, not. Yesterday, the Terrapass blog wrote up a new report that estimates that plug-ins would significantly reduce carbon emissions, even if the U.S. continues to generate electricity using the dirty technologies (e.g. coal) that it currently uses.
The report mapped out nine different scenarios by varying both the market penetration of plug-ins and the carbon intensity of the U.S. electrical grid. In even the most pessimistic scenario, plug-ins result in significant emissions reductions. In the median (and presumably most likely) scenario, plug-ins shave about half a gigaton of carbon from annual U.S. emissions. To put this in perspective, this is about 10% of the reductions we need to stabilize the climate. Not bad.
The switch would also net reductions in pollutants across the board.
Where are the plug-in hybrids? I want one now.
Related Posts:
- no, really, *everyone* gets a pony (November, 2006)
- Apple Releases Environmental Impact Analyses (October, 2008)
- Snow Biking in Alaska (January, 2008)
- Social Costs (November, 2007)
- William Kankwamba, Malawi Maker (July, 2007)
July 26th, 2007 at 10:20 am
How powerful does the gas generator have to be? Is it possible to make one that you can pull out of the car and use as a backup power system at home, or when traveling? (Say, while you are camping?) That would be sweet. If I’m going to have an internal combustion generator, I might as well be able to use it for all of my off-grid electricity needs!
July 26th, 2007 at 10:47 am
For what they call “series hybrids” where the generator only powers the batteries but doesn’t provide mechanical energy to the drive train, the generators can be quite small. Essentially, they only need to be sized for average power, while the electric motor can be sized for peak power, playing to the strengths of each.
I don’t know how many horsepower that ends up being, but I imagine it’s many times less than a normal car engine. Maybe even small enough to be portable. Then again, why pull it out of the car? Just plug stuff into your car, and then you can use the batteries, too, when you need things to be quiet
July 27th, 2007 at 3:54 am
Prius plug-in conversions: http://calcars.org/howtoget.html
Of course, since you don’t already own a car, this purchase would almost certainly result in a net gain in emissions.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:42 am
It’s hard to beat the carbon footprint of my bike, I guess. Except perhaps by not being alive in the first place…
July 31st, 2007 at 4:18 am
Oh neat: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/08/01/100138830/index.htm
July 31st, 2007 at 9:24 am
Totally: