Hybrid cars that plug in to charge use power plant energy that use coal and use oil to create energy?confused

Answer 1

like someone else said not all power plants use coal and oil to create more energy, some use the heat of the sun and ALOT of mirrors, some use solar power, some water powered, and some wind powered, and we have a few Nuclear power plants (not sure if those are good for enviroment or not), getting citizens to change cars would be a large step in reducing dependency on oil imports, and then the gov. can then focus on changing power plants that are oil dependent, to something else.... you cant just change the world in 5 minutes... it takes years...

oh- i dont think that corn idea is going to work.... how long have they been talking about corn power, but do we have a power plant in the US that runs on corn....? I don't think we do

Answer 2

Yeah, I saw a cartoon to that effect the other day and did a double take myself. The hybrid car is really only better if you're plugging into a charger that uses solar power. Otherwise, you're reducing the demand for foreign oil but not helping to clean up the air from coal fired power plants.

Answer 3

Yes you have reason to be. Burning fossil fuels in power stations converting that to electricity transmitting it ,with resulting losses, produces more CO2 than burning it inside the car. Only a very small % of E are produced from none fossil and nucleur. Take note hydro is the most destructive form of producing energy. It does destroy 1000's of km ecosystym downstream to produce a couple of meggawatt.

Answer 4

At least part of the energy from power plants comes from clean or renewable sources, and it has potential to become cleaner in the future as we shift our power generation.

100% of the energy made by a gasoline car comes from oil, which produces emissions and is non-renewable.

Answer 5

You are absolutely correct. Unless the electricity comes from non-fossil fuels, electric cars are no better than gasoline powered cars. Someone here pointed out that the generation plants are more efficient that buring the oil in the car, and that it would be better to use coal/oil to make electricity and power the car with that electricity. However, they failed to point out all the electricity lost in transmission (through resistance). This makes it more efficient to burn th oil in the car.

We get very little electricty from hydroelectric, solar, and wind (less than 10% of all electricity altogether). And, we only get maybe 10% from nuclear.

Until we begin generating more electricity from hydroelectric (we've already reach the limit in the US), nuclear (and, we know the risks), solar, and wind, electric cars don't make much sense.

Answer 6

Because of the efficiency of electric engines, plug-in hybrids and electric cars produce far less greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engines even if the electric grid is powered mostly by fossil fuels like burning coal. Here are some numbers.

PHEV = plug-in electric hybrid vehicle
HEV = hybrid electric vehicle (like the Prius)
EV = electric vehicle
ICE = internal combustion engine

"PHEVs reduce CO2 emissions by 37%-67% compared with ICEs and by 19%-54% compared with HEVs in well-to-wheels (W2W) analyses assuming fueling with gasoline and electricity from the U.S. mix of power plants (and ignoring one or two outliers in the data). PHEVs reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions too.

EVs reduce CO2 by 11%-100% compared with ICEs and by 24%-54% compared with HEVs, and significantly reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions, using the U.S. grid
mix. If all U.S. cars were EVs, we’d reduce global warming emissions. Using electricity strictly from coal, EVs still would reduce CO2 by 0%-59% compared with ICEs (one analysis found 0% change; six others found reductions of 17%-59%) and might produce 30%-49% more CO2 than HEVs (based on only two analyses). On the other hand, if electricity comes from solar or wind power, EVs eliminate all emissions. Using natural gas to make electricity, emissions fall in between those from coal and renewable power."

Answer 7

It could be that powerplants are more efficient in converting oil into energy, but I agree. If we built more wind turbine, it might help the environment, by making us less dependent on fossil fuel. Also most of us would plug in at night. During the night, electricity is not so much in demand and the elctricity we don't use is wasted.. Since powerplant produce electricity at a constant level, charging at night would prevent the waste of electricity.

Answer 8

Yes but so do oil refineries that turn the crude oil into petrol. Then the car burns even more and produces carbon monoxide whereas the hybrid car doesn't. So in the end not as much carbon monoxide is produced from the hybrid cars

Answer 9

Well we could build power plants that burn corn just like those pellet stoves that are on the market.

And as for hydro-electric that is worse than nuclear power. It stops the natural migration of fish and flood beautiful wild lands (example: Lake Powell).

No! We need to starve the planet to get to work to push paper. What we need to do is more telecommuting and work from our energy efficient homes (heated with corn)

Power to the Corn!

Answer 10

You are not supposed to be thinking. Do what Al Gore says and stop questioning everything.