I recently had a lively discussion on EV and how “green” they are. The assertion was that EV is a zero emission vehicle and thus better for the planet. I begged to differ. This is my argument:
To say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid. You see, batteries do not make electricity. Batteries store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. Approximately 40% of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, therefore it follows that 40% of the EV’s on the road are actually coal-powered.
For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries and also windmills and solar panels. A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, about the size of a travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
To manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for one battery.
The main problem with solar panels is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a serious health hazard, and the panels can’t be recycled.
Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. The average windmill weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We can’t recycle used blades either.
There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. “Going Green” may sound like the Utopian ideal but when you look at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind, you can see that “Going Green” is more destructive to the Earth’s environment than meets the eye, for sure. I’m not opposed to mining, electric vehicles, wind or solar. But I think more people need to be made aware of the reality of the “Green” propaganda. Big Oil and Big Coal aren’t worried about the “green” movement. EV will require a substantial increase in power demand, which will increase the need for fossil fuels to support that increased demand.
That’s all the science for today. Carry on.
Dano Dare Speak 