Someone said that "switching vehicles to electric, when the plant generating that electricity is an old-school coal-fired power plant, isn't a win."
My response:
Yes, but that's the way it realistically has to be done, in steps.
1. Switching a car to electric (even if, for now, the source is coal) is a partial win, one step in the right direction. Now, that car is no longer dependent on gas or diesel.
2. As cars get switched over to electricity, the electrical demand will skyrocket. So, you need, in the interim, combinations of power plants (some more green than others) to prevent outages.
3. At the next phase, you can systematically work on replacing the worst sources with better sources. As you do that, as long as you keep supply constant, electric car owners don't have to do anything, because the source of power is abstracted away from them.
My response:
Yes, but that's the way it realistically has to be done, in steps.
1. Switching a car to electric (even if, for now, the source is coal) is a partial win, one step in the right direction. Now, that car is no longer dependent on gas or diesel.
2. As cars get switched over to electricity, the electrical demand will skyrocket. So, you need, in the interim, combinations of power plants (some more green than others) to prevent outages.
3. At the next phase, you can systematically work on replacing the worst sources with better sources. As you do that, as long as you keep supply constant, electric car owners don't have to do anything, because the source of power is abstracted away from them.
© 2024 Praveen Puri
