Tesla electric cars, marketed as being among the planet’s greenest vehicles, may be behind the production of just as much greenhouse gas as their petrol and diesel equivalents, according to energy analysts. They have calculated the amount of greenhouse gas generated in building Tesla’s luxury cars and added this to the CO2 from the power stations that produce electricity to charge them. This was compared with the emissions from making and running normal cars. “Teslas are not cleaner to run than the average car in the UK,” said Jonathan Harris, of Engaged Tracking, a London-based company that analyses the sustainability and “greenness” of firms for potential investors. Due to the massive use of power used to build new cars, greenest car is the one your driving now. Keep it on the road for 30 years and your a down right tree hugging hippie !!! Or buy a Land Rover Defender / series, greenest car on the planet, as most are still on the road.
Undoubtedly true.....I scoffed at one Grand Design pseudo eco home made with hundreds of cubic metres of concrete without regard to its production inputs. Ditto all the wind farms with roads, tower bases and minimal output in current weather. Too much politicised pseudo science chasing research grants and subsidies. The greenest vehicles (RR & LR) are generally the most durable. Fuel consumption is but part of the equation.
Oh no Divvint gan there How much life you got left in ya??? FFS live for the day Get a new Speedmaster And be HAPPY FFS
Totally spot on ugly wind farms in Northumberland not spinning today wonder if the banks of auxiliary diesel generators hidden all over the country had to kick in
I'm a big supporter of electric transportation and wind/tidal/solar power generation. Anything but fossil fuel and nuclear power generation works for me. We'll see who's right in 5-10 yrs.
Why wait? Firstly we are talking about electricity - not a primary fuel but one that needs generating and expensive distribution infrastructure. It does not store readily and the compact, reliable battery problem solution still eludes us. Wind power is inherently unreliable. It can only ever supplement a reliable source. Nuclear is the most rational choice as it is really a giant kettle driving a steam turbine. In the popular mind the distinction with nuclear weapons gets confused. Compact nuclear power plants have been powering ships and submarines for years......never mind full blown power stations. Spent fuel can be safely stored in geologically stable disused coal mines. Chernobyl was a distinctly Russian event! Fossil fuels much dirtier......but it is lunacy the UK with its wholly predictable tidal flows at different times around our coast has done so little at sea.....apart from b**** wind farms.
Why dont we have water wheels, under bridges, and at the side of rivers,that would produce constant 24 hour power suppys that can only be see from short distances.What happened to all those planned Hydro Dams, we should have hundreds of them.
Agreed. Most of our waterways lend themselves to small scale turbines. Windsor Castle and Balmoral have then!
Tidal and wave are the way to go IMHO. The sea moves in and out every day, makes more bloody sense that wind power. Near me is the Solway firth, massive energy every day with the tides, and what do they do, build a wind farm in the middle of the bloody water !!! Be funny if it wasn't true. Build a huge tidal barrier from D&G to Cumbria, put turbines in it and a road across the top. Would power both counties. Same could be said for all the Firths around Scotland and Estuaries of England.
The more interesting - and revealing - aspect is the extent to which science and engineering have become politicised in the pursuit of research grants and subsidies. Just look at the number of politicians with fingers (& families) in wind renewables......
Just like with computers we know that electric vehicles are likely to come on in leaps and bounds now that bigger companies are taking it seriously and that governments are starting to impose deadlines for phasing out fossil fuel-only vehicles. I'm expecting big changes in the next ten years and when I replace one of my cars next year it will probably be the last pure dino juice one I buy. Until then I am happy to stay away from them and let others be the test dummies for the emerging technology which will, hopefully, bring advances to domestic power generation as a by-product. Agree on the tidal debate though - so much lost potential there that we need to exploit more.
Not only are there issues with the amount of energy used to produce all this pseudo green stuff [I'd love to see a genuine cost/benefit analysis of seawater located wind turbines (including production of the hardware, installing and maintaining each unit, its real life expectancy in seawater versus its "free" energy produced over the same life-span)], there's the issue of how do people living in towns and cities recharge their leccy cars? Most don't have drives, so are they going to sling extension leads above the pavement to reach their car, or are the rest of us going to subsidise another massive dig up of every side street in Britain? Also, what about the knock-on cost effects on A&E departments? With lots of electric vehicle out there making next to no noise, there'll be old duffers like me and young people with earphones getting knocked down right left and centre. The extra £20 billion for the NHS'll be eaten up in no time. Also, Bosch Auto were in the news a month or so ago announcing that they've developed a "traditional" fueling system that gives almost zero noxious emissions [particulates or NOx]. Clearly, pressure from "green" alternatives caused them to pour dosh into research but they have the solution for vehicles [as long as oil holds out].
Hi Toddy, the batteries will be removable, you drive into and then over the service area, old battery will be automatically removed lowered then new raised replaced, the charge happens in storage area until next vehicle arrival requiring a fresh charged battery, whole process to take place in less time than current 40/50 ltr petrol/diesel refuelling !
I can't decide if you're pulling my whatsit or what. If you're serious, I can wait to see the queue at Tesco's on a Saturday morning when the supply of fresh, recharged batteries has dried up. The infrastructure for that operation would be astronomically expensive.
We've got the wave hub down here in Cornwall, lots of excitement when it was installed........then nothing. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/40m-wave-hub-near-hayle-1392269
