Beneath the hoods of millions of clean electric cars, you will find a dirty battery charged by dirty electricity.  We all want to do the right thing and do our portion to reduce our emissions, but getting an electric car is only PART of the solution.  Between manufacturing the battery and buying electricity, you are actually causing MORE CO2 emissions, and burning 8,160 gallons of water MORE per year.  Don’t worry though, there is a very easy solution!

Making The Battery – Just to build each car battery – weighing upwards of 1,100 pounds – would emit up to 74% more CO2 than producing an efficient conventional car if its made in a factory powered by fossil fuels.  The issue is more of where it is made.  By 2021, capacity will exist to build batteries for more than 10 million cars running on 60 kilowatt-hour packs, according to Bloomberg NEF.  Most of the supply will come from non CO2 regulated countries like China, Thailand, Germany and Poland that rely on non-renewable sources like coal for electricity.

Part of the problem is our regulators haven’t set out clear guidelines on acceptable carbon emissions over the life cycle of electric cars, even as the likes of China, France, and the U.K. move toward outright bans of combustion engines.   “It will come down to where the battery is made, how it is made, and even where we get our electric power from,” said Henrik Fisker, CEO and Chairman of Fisker Inc., a California-based developer of electric vehicles.

Electricity – The “fuel” of the electric car can be incredibly dirty and wasteful depending on if you buy it from the grid, or if you generate of from Solar.   Energy requires water, and every day your household uses 465 gallons of water to produce the electricity you pulled from the Grid.  You need water to run your laptop, to keep you lights on, to watch TV.

To charge an electric car, it adds about 34 kWh per day to your electric bill.   A power plant uses about 20 gallons of water to create just one kWh.  That means that each day your electric car uses 680 more gallons of water to charge your car, as you buy power from the grid!

 

The Solution:

Its no surprise that we are in a drought in California.  Everyone is so reliant on the grid, and even as we try to do our part to go green and reduce emissions, the manufacturing of the batteries causes more emissions and the cost of electricity adds tremendously to the drought.

How do we solve this?  It’s very simple – instead of going out and buying the brand new electric car, use the hybrid or electric car you currently have for the duration of its life.  If you do have an electric car, then you absolutely need to get solar as a way to buy CHEAPER and CLEAN electricity, and fuel for you car.

Solar Anyone who owns a home has the power to go solar, and each home that goes solar is eliminating 240,000 gallons of water being burned by power plants every year.  Solar saves you money, gives you cheaper and extremely clean “fuel” for your car, and helps you to continue to do your part in reducing emissions and becoming self-sufficient and self-generating.  By going solar, you remove yourself from the ever-increasing charges that come with the utilities, but you also get to control what you spend each month.  What better decision can you make than reducing emissions, saving water, AND lower your monthly expenses at the same time.  There is quite literally no reason to stay on the grid.  If you have the ability to make the change, please call and let us help you do that.

If you want to hear more about how you can do your part, fill out our contact page and have us come out and explain the true value of what this little decision can make for our state and country.  There is a reason it has been so popular, its time you do your part too.

 

Buying an electric car is a great idea, the point of this blog is to remind you that its good to keep your car as long as possible as well.  If you can, get solar for your home.  With Solar AND an Electric Car, you are generating your own electricity from the sun, powering your house and charging your car, NOW you are making a REAL CHANGE.

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