Comments on: Cleantech Buffet (Solar Panel Installation Boom, First Solar On Verge Of Another Record…)

By: Leora Klein

Leora Klein — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 08:41:00 +0000

hey thank for information solar kit

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:02:00 +0000

Useful point we should echo more often. Thanks!

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:35:00 +0000

I would presume it’s because short flights take off with a smaller mass of fuel per passenger than long flights and so the decreased weight results in them burning less fuel overall per passenger kilometer.

By: jonesey

jonesey — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:38:00 +0000

When comparing the hybrid, the “dirty” electricity EV, and the “clean” electricity EV, remember that even the “dirty” electricity emissions are scrubbed considerably cleaner at a (typically distant) power plant than the soot, carbon monoxide, and other non-CO2 emissions that come from the tailpipes of internal combustion engines that are spewing that stuff right into the air that you’re breathing. So if the CO2 is about the same, go for the one that pollutes your local breathing air a lot less. (Yes, I know, that’s the bike, but an EV is an OK choice too.)

By: JamesWimberley

JamesWimberley — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:33:00 +0000

How come short flights emit less carbon per km than long ones? That can´t be right; planes use nnore fuel taking off and landing than cruising.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:06:00 +0000

All of those “dirty grid” states? A great option is to drive an EV. And put some solar panels on your roof.

Average miles driven per year in the US – 13,000
Typical electricity usage by an EV – 0.3 kWh/mile
Average annual solar hours per day in WV – 4.2

Solar panels needed to produce all the electricity one would use over the next 30, 40 years – ~ 3,000 watts

By: sault

sault — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The “indirect fuel” for cycling would just be accumulating around our waistlines as “indirect lipid storage” if one didn’t cycle.
And the emissions for the electric car are a little high. Take a look at this graph:

http://thepowerfactor.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/us-co2-emissions-per-electrical-energy-quantity-by-state.jpg
CO2 emissions vary wildly state-by-state, with North Dakota and Wyoming coming in at 1,000g CO2 per kWh, while just next door in Idaho, it looks like they’re around 80g CO2 per kWh. Vermont is basically zero while all the other states fall in between. FYI, California, home to most EVs, is spewing out less than half the national average at about 300g CO2 per kWh while the rest of “EV country”, or the Pacific Northwest, New York and New England, beat the national average handily. So yes, driving an EV in West Virginia isn’t a good idea right now, but for most of the population, especially where charging infrastructure is more common, EVs make a huge reduction in CO2 emissions compared to gassers and hybrids.