Carbon neutral and CO2 emissions, etc

ucbalumnus
Wed, 08 Sep 2021 23:04:27 +0000

bennty:

Otoh, what’s the quantity of lithium in the bus vs. the number of future electric cars that it replaces?

Sure, if you can get people to choose the bus over cars, that helps. But that does not exclude choosing electric vehicles (buses or cars) to replace old vehicles that get worn out where vehicles are still needed. Mining petroleum is quite dirty, and petroleum can also be more of a trade deficit and foreign policy problem than other fuels.

bennty:

The point all around, including the uranium mining (and the massives stores of spent fuel cooking away unrecognizably for decades, leaking, getting shipped about when it’s not kept onsite) is that a major part of this picture needs to be use less.

Yes, using less helps. Wasting energy is wasting money, although that concept seems to be ignored by most as they complain about their utility or fuel bills. But most people, even those who use less, use more than zero.

bennty:

If you’re arranging your days so that you’re working with the sun and wind instead of trying to power willfully through the day as though environment means nothing, you will burn far fewer stored midnight electrons, and need fewer batteries.

Electricity use peaks in the evening (particularly in the summer; electric companies have higher rates at that time), because people run the air conditioning to cool off their houses from the accumulated heat of the day while doing things like cooking. To change that would require cultural changes like:

1. Being more tolerant of temperature variation in the house. Someone who is willing to let the temperature in the house vary from 60F to 80F will use less energy than someone who always wants the house to be 72F.

2. Choosing evening meals that require less cooking.

Electricity use drops to daily minimums during the late night, even with electric buses and cars charging then for the currently cheaper electricity rates.

You can see an example of electricity use over a day at California ISO - Today's Outlook