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https://theconversation.com/electric-vehicles-will-start-to-cut-emissions-and-improve-air-quality-in-our-cities-but-only-once-theyre-common-227364>
"Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air
pollution – from transport.
Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the
recent boom in EV purchases, they’re still a tiny minority of the cars on the
road.
We would get more immediate benefit by focusing on electrifying buses, which
are a surprisingly large source of air pollution, and finding ways to cut
rapidly growing emissions from diesel trucks.
While the electricity sector still produces the largest share of emissions in
Australia (32.3%), emissions are falling. But emissions from transport (21.1%)
are already the third-largest contributor – and are rising faster and faster.
Critics say EVs just shift the emissions and pollution from tailpipe to power
plant smokestack. This is only partly true. A grid powered by brown coal could
indeed mean EVs are dirtier than we think. But as more and more clean energy
pours into the grid (or behind the grid, in the form of solar on our rooftops),
this becomes less and less of a concern. Charging your EV from rooftop solar is
emissions-free, and charging from a high-renewable grid means very low
emissions. But even when powered by a coal grid, EVs are still much cleaner
than petrol or diesel cars."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
