So what is your carbon footprint?

It takes about 100 kWh of fossil fuel (coal, gas, nuclear, renewable - grid mix) to produce 33.7 kWh of electricity.

Once it is produced, EV is very efficient to run. The problem is the fuel production.

 

Mine was so far off I wonder what they're doing? The vast majority (95%+) comes from renewables. Hydro, wood, wind. Yet that site shows almost 30% nuclear, which we have none of.

 

HEV in the graph is not Prius but a 42 MPG hybrid. PHEV is the Volt.

50 MPG Prius emits 222 g/mi while PiP would emit 230 g/mi.
Beyond Tailpipe Emissions: Results

Volt would emit 280 g/mi.
Beyond Tailpipe Emissions: Results

You are better of with a regular Prius or install solar panel so you can cut daytime carbon footprint.

 

That's correct for coal, since that has ~3kWh/lb of energy and we use ~1lb of coal to generate ~1kWh of electricity...

SAS Output
SAS Output

This would correspond to ~2+lb of carbon per kWh of electricity given the carbon emissions of coal at 33% efficiency.

How much carbon dioxide is produced per kilowatthour when generating electricity with fossil fuels? - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

However, US electricity emissions are ~1.1lb/kWh, which means that at the current grid mix, it takes ~68kwh of FF to make ~34kWh of electricity.

Electric Power Annual 2013 - Energy Information Administration

 

According to EIA, 2/3 of energy is lost at the power plant and power lines. They are referring to the grid mix of everything.

That means 67 kWh is loss and 33.7 kWh makes it to the outlets. Total fossil fuel started should be around 100 kWh.

On the other hand, it takes 50 kWh of fossil fuel to generate 33.7 kWh (gallon equivalent) of hydrogen.

 

That's accurate for coal power (and probably single cycle natural gas) plants in terms of carbon emissions, but it doesn't apply to the grid as a whole, since nuclear isn't as carbon intensive although the thermal efficiency is probably in the ~33%-50% range, and hydro/wind/solar/geothermal/etc... (mostly) don't use thermal power plants and also aren't as carbon intensive.

All of the information I linked in my last post is from the EIA as well. Total carbon emissions versus total generation is about half of what it would be if we had nothing but FF plants running at ~33% efficiency. That's partly because of nuclear/renewables, and partly because of incremental improvements in FF generation efficiency.

 

It may be doing the same to you that it does to me: aggregates many states (and portions of other states) together, and gives a single answer for the entire block. It doesn't really drill down to a specific zip code, or even a single state.

Try some sample zip codes at varying distances from your home, and see how far away it produces the exact same result. And be sure to run your samples in several different directions.

 

It is probably driven by the data from eGRID. Here is the map.

 

I'm in the yellow western block of that map. My zip code is aggregated to include roughly between one-third and one-half the land area of that block, but I detected at least three other zones within that yellow block.

 

Berkley has something that goes down to the zip code and includes more than just electricity. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's worth a look.

New! Carbon Footprint Maps | CoolClimate Network

 

It clearly lumps in far more than electricity. The per-zip-code results seem to correlate to typical household wealth, at least in my local area.

 

Very true...
And reminds me chart I have made and submitted long ago in another thread:
(Volt 85% means 85% EV and so on. GHG emissions include "up-stream" emissions)