How to Run an Electric Car on Green Electricity

This post, part of a series we're running all about electric cars, was written by Christopher Lampton from HowStuffWorks.com.

An electric car is, in the parlance of the auto industry, a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV). This means that, unlike cars that use internal combustion engines, no polluting gases or particles are emitted from the tailpipe of an electric car, which uses a battery-powered electric motor instead. The first such zero-emissions vehicle from a major carmaker is the Nissan LEAF, due to go on sale in late 2010. Plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt (also due in late 2010) also produce zero emissions as long as their internal combustion engines don't turn themselves on (which generally only happens when the battery power runs low).

But just because a car produces zero emissions doesn't mean that it produces zero pollution. Whether you charge an electric car in your garage or from one of the many public charging stations starting to appear around the U.S., the power that goes into the battery ultimately will come from the same electric grid that powers the lights in your bedroom. And the majority of that power is generated using fossil fuels that produce almost as much carbon dioxide as an internal combustion engine. So while you may not be producing pollution when you drive your electric car, you'll be producing it while you're recharging.

Exactly how much pollution you'll produce depends on where you live. Some sources of electric power generation are greener than others. Coal is the dirtiest in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and is used for about half the electric power generation in the U.S. On the other hand, electricity sources such as hydropower, wind power, nuclear power, geothermal power, and solar power produce little or no carbon dioxide. Even natural gas, a fossil fuel, produces considerably fewer carbon emissions than coal. A Department of Energy study, as detailed in a recent issue of Scientific American, reports that the largest amount of carbon dioxide is produced by power plants in the greater Illinois area, where more than 75 percent of the power is generated by coal. The lowest carbon dioxide production is from power plants in the Pacific Northwest, where 85 percent of the power is produced by natural gas and 15 percent by nuclear plants.

So one way to make sure that your electric car is running off green electricity would be to move to Seattle (or to Texas or California, where the power is almost as clean as in the Pacific Northwest). Or if you really want to reduce your carbon footprint, move to Iceland, which, according to this Yahoo! article, is trying to achieve a completely pollution-free electric power supply based on geothermal energy. Of course, moving yourself and your family to a greener location on the power grid probably isn't feasible. Fortunately, the U.S. is currently in the process of introducing a "smart" (that is, computer-controlled) power grid that's capable of giving priority to greener sources of electricity whenever possible, so you might consider writing your local Congressional representatives and encouraging them to vote for federal incentives to companies that can supply green power to that grid.

Or if you really want to get off the grid altogether, you might consider looking into a company like Solar Electric Vehicles, which is developing systems that will allow you to recharge your car with your own solar power generator. Such technology is currently in its infancy, but could eventually become a source of green power for everybody's car.

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