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Solar and wind plants do not use fuels that have to be extracted from the ground. This is where EV "wins" in terms of cleanliness: unlike ICE, it can be fueled by 100% clean energy while ICE never can be. Which leads to one of EV's biggest consumer advantages, which is your own garage is your own personal gas station. If you have solar panels on your roof it's possible to completely fill your EV's tank using free, clean energy.
Solar, wind, and hydro are renewable resources of energy. But at least in the US most mining operations, processing, and distribution operates on fuels such as diesel, gasoline, and natural gas in some instances. EV's are fueled by clean energy? Is that energy used for charging the battery generated at the outlet?
Solar and wind plants do not use fuels that have to be extracted from the ground. This is where EV "wins" in terms of cleanliness: unlike ICE, it can be fueled by 100% clean energy while ICE never can be. Which leads to one of EV's biggest consumer advantages, which is your own garage is your own personal gas station. If you have solar panels on your roof it's possible to completely fill your EV's tank using free, clean energy.
Technically ICE can be fueled directly using Hydrogen, if it weren't so inefficient to create and store hydrogen, your modern gasoline engine would run quite fine on it if one is very careful about tuning it and also implements the necessary safety checks on the Hydrogen fuel system itself. I've also heard of e-fuels which are supposedly much cleaner than Gasoline.
Solar and wind plants do not use fuels that have to be extracted from the ground. This is where EV "wins" in terms of cleanliness: unlike ICE, it can be fueled by 100% clean energy while ICE never can be. Which leads to one of EV's biggest consumer advantages, which is your own garage is your own personal gas station. If you have solar panels on your roof it's possible to completely fill your EV's tank using free, clean energy.
In relation to TV screens: in the past there were very few TV/screen manufacturers in the world. But today there are a great number of screen manufacturers, most of them in Asia. All of these manufacturers compete with each other for a stronghold of the TV market. In the past, the lack of TV manufacturers resulted in low production versus high demand for the product, which in turn made it more expensive. Back then we worked for less $ and our cost of living was also lower.
New TV screen technology fetches the higher price, and at the same time the now "just older" TV screen technology drops some of its price. If you want to latest and the greatest TV screen you have to pay the highest price, but two to tree years later the screen will probably cost about half of what you pay today. However, TV manufacturers and the market aren't stupid: the prices are regulated so that the value drop takes place gradually. So if you look at how much we make today versus the cost of living, a brand new TV screen is as expensive as it has always been.
You’re making stuff up here. In the tube TV days, there were hundreds of manufacturers. Every European country had several. There were easily a dozen Japanese brands. It was relatively low tech with many smaller manufacturers. There aren’t many companies making panels. LG makes all the OLED panels and sells them to other companies who put their own plastic and electronics around the panel.
My take is that battery vendors will consolidate and use patents to protect their intellectual property. Like any other component, there will be a few dominant high volume suppliers. It’s likely most of those will be Chinese.
There hasn't been a lot of need for it, as most LI-ion batteries had been in laptops and phones and power tools. It was hard to extract it from those small batteries. EVs are easier to get it out of, but, there's haven't been very many EV batteries that have reached end of life yet, so it was not an economic viability. But it soon will be as the first few EVs reach end of life (the oldest LI-ion EVs are now a mere 10 years old).
There hasn't been a lot of need for it, as most LI-ion batteries had been in laptops and phones and power tools. It was hard to extract it from those small batteries. EVs are easier to get it out of, but, there's haven't been very many EV batteries that have reached end of life yet, so it was not an economic viability. But it soon will be as the first few EVs reach end of life (the oldest LI-ion EVs are now a mere 10 years old).
Yep, you're right about that, so far, there aren't many EV battery packs in landfills, because they haven't been selling in any significant numbers for very long, and the batteries typically seem to last a good 10 years at least. Newer battery designs are aiming to extend life as well as increase charge density and reduce recharge times. They really should design the batteries for ease and efficiency of recycling too - I am sure this can have a significant effect on the economics of recycling.
Yep, you're right about that, so far, there aren't many EV battery packs in landfills, because they haven't been selling in any significant numbers for very long, and the batteries typically seem to last a good 10 years at least. Newer battery designs are aiming to extend life as well as increase charge density and reduce recharge times. They really should design the batteries for ease and efficiency of recycling too - I am sure this can have a significant effect on the economics of recycling.
+1
When there are millions of battery packs beyond their useful life, the economies of scale for recycling will kick in.
The extended longevity is partly a software optimization. It’s a huge array of cells. Software distributes discharge and charge to optimize for battery life. It’s similar to solid state hard drives on a laptop or smartphone. You can only overwrite nonvolatile memory so many times before it fails.
I’m not up on the latest battery chemistry breakthroughs. There are a huge number of people working on the problem since there’s such big money in developing the intellectual property.
EV's are fueled by clean energy? Is that energy used for charging the battery generated at the outlet?
No, I wrote that EV's can be fueled by clean energy; in the real world it's a mix of fossil and renewable energy sources. The cleanliness of the energy varies depends on your utility and the time of day. In some states that electricity will be generated by a mix of gas and coal; here in California, renewables are the largest component -- in daytime. Last May California set a record where 81.8% of power came from renewables (briefly, under ideal conditions). EV owners who have solar panels and a Powerwall can fuel up their cars with 100% non-greenhouse energy at home.
Last edited by Elliott_CA; 03-17-2021 at 09:18 AM..
No, I wrote that EV's can be fueled by clean energy; in the real world it's a mix of fossil and renewable energy sources. The cleanliness of the energy varies depends on your utility and the time of day. In some states that electricity will be generated by a mix of gas and coal; here in California, renewables are the largest component -- in daytime. Last May California set a record where 81.8% of power came from renewables (briefly, under ideal conditions). EV owners who have solar panels and a Powerwall can fuel up their cars with 100% non-greenhouse energy at home.
Yep, it's certainly true that we need clean electricity generation to fully benefit from EVs replacing ICE vehicles and low temperature heat pumps replacing gas and oil heat. But, we are indeed moving in that direction - there is a clear trend towards cleaner power generation under way. Even substituting natural gas for coal in power plants is a win, but wind and solar get bigger each year. The solar panels and the wind turbines keep improving, so they get more attractive every year. I think later this year they will start construction on Vineyard Wind, the biggest offshore wind farm in the country and more are in planning or approval phases.
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