EVs: It’s Hard Being Green

It’s hard to be “green.” Ask Al Gore, whose carbon footprint must be among the highest in America (home electricity usage + SUV trips + private plane rides). Same for Leonard DiCaprio’s yacht. John Holdren, Obama’s alarmist-in-chief, also violates the I = PAT equation while having fun fishing.

I was reminded of this when reading the latest Musings from the Oil Patch of G. Allen Brooks of the energy investment banking firm PPHB. His “Pictures Reflecting the Reality of Our Green World” offered three examples (below).

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“In New Zealand, electric vehicle chargers are powered by diesel generators. As one wag pointed out, the diesel generators are either close to the vehicle when charging or more remote when making the power, but they still do the work.”

“If you are worried about getting stranded in your electric car, why not take along your personal range extender?”

“After two years, the French have determined its solar road experiment was a disaster – cost too much, wouldn’t stand up to road traffic, parts of it had to be removed when they broke, and it failed to generate sufficient electricity to power highway lights due to cars shading the solar panels.

Maybe they should have located the road in the south of France where the sun is stronger and not in Normandy where there is little sun. A solar bike path in the Netherlands seems to be working, probably due to less weight on the road and shade from bike riders. Two other solar-topped road experiments in the Netherlands continue to be tested.”

Conclusion

In 1896, Thomas Edison wisely told Henry Ford to steer clear of EVs. And today, battery energy remains less efficient than on-board combustion for a variety of technical and market reasons.