this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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I wonder when they'll reach peak coal for their electricity production.
Yes, this is vitally important. Switching from petrol to EVs will be a net negative for the environment if all that energy comes from burning coal.
They have to clean up their grid, which unfortunately isn't happening at the moment. They're building new coal plants.
It’s still a significant net gain because of the energy conversion efficiency of both EVs and large scale power generation. It also reduces pollution in densely populated areas which improves citizen health.
Still, they should clean their grid ASAP, but they are deploying solar faster than anyone else and it’s not close.
They're also deploying coal faster than anyone else.
I've heard this argument before about the efficiency of burning centrally, usually in a European context to defend running EVs on a grid powered mostly by natural gas, but not for coal.
Now I'm genuinely curious whether efficiently burning coal to power EVs is less bad for the environment than burning petrol in ICE cars. Is there any research on that?
I agree that ultimately EVs are the future, and I do drive one myself and strive to charge it on renewables whenever possible. However, in places with dirtier grids I'm not sure they're a great idea.
Natural gas releases more methane (which is a much more harmful GHG) than coal...
Here’s the study. If you don’t have access many articles that reference and describe it are only a Google search away:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0488-7
Well it's still a step in the right in my opinion. It's one less source of greenhouses gases. It's one less industry that needs to be cleaned up.