TECHNOLOGY

Electric car mania and the laws of  Physics

Gwyn Morgan in his July 4, 2016 article (G&M, B2) points out some basic facts of the Laws of Physics: namely, that every time a form of energy is converted from one state to another there is a significant ‘loss’ at each step.

Energy Loss Chain

  1.  Building and running machinery to create electricity in power plants or wind turbines or solar panels. This involves converting mechanical ‘energy’ and usually electricity itself to operate and monitor the equipment.

      2.   Transmission and distribution Loss – i.e., leakage from electric overhead lines, transformers, etc. increases with distance, so the greater the distance from the power generation site to the end use, the more electricity leaks out.  According to the Electrical Engineering Portal (http://electrical-engineering-portal.com/total-losses-in-power-distribution-and-transmission-lines-1) line leakage is around 17% and another 50% is lost in the distribution network.

     3.  Conversion of electricity to battery storage chemistry in electric cars, etc..

     4. Conversion of battery chemistry back to electricity.

Such losses can easily amount to 75% according to Gywn Morgan, and therefore it would be better and simpler to simply put gasoline and diesel into our vehicles than have all these numerous and wasteful ‘intermediate steps’.

So keep it simple and stick to Gaia’s ready to-use-gifts: natural gas, petroleum and even coal.