Desired website: Google Environment

[jducoeur]

I was thinking this morning about my next car. I'm hoping that my good old Camry gives me a few more years, mostly because I have a specific car I want, that isn't available yet: an optional-plug-in Prius. That is, exactly the current Prius, but with a plug in *addition* to the gas engine, so that I can get the range of the gas engine when I need it, but can run off the plug for short-range commuting. (Yes, I know that you can retrofit this onto the car, but I generally feel more secure when it's built in from the factory. Toyota is working on it, but it sounds like it'll be a couple of years before it's ready for prime time.)

But that led me to wonder: how sure am I about the relative merits about the electric vs. gas? I mean, yes, there are oft-cited statistics like "120 MPG equivalent" when you plug the car in -- but surely that's a gross oversimplification. From an *environmental* perspective (I'm not talking about cost here), there are lots of confounding factors that have to be taken into account. For example, what is my electricity mainly based on? Wind vs. coal makes a dramatic difference in the environmental impact of my electricity, and finding out the actual percentages isn't simple. (Yes, I can tell the power company "I want green electricity", but that really is just influencing the mix, rather than giving me entirely greener-based power.)

Moreover, there's another oft-cited statistic, that half of all electricity is lost in transmission. I *assume* that the amount of loss is proportional to where I am, though -- that there's a big difference if I'm 1000 yards from the power plant, as opposed to ten miles away. (Physics types should please tell me if that assumption is incorrect.) But I haven't the slightest clue how long the wires are between me and the nearest power plant, much less how the other plants in the grid factor into that. Figuring out how much electricity is being lost getting to *me* is quite difficult even to approximate realistically, and I would expect that to make a significant difference in the actual environmental footprint of this theoretical plug-in car.

So I find myself wishing for a website that would allow me to give the location of my house, and which would produce a *realistic* estimate of what my electricity looks like environmentally. I have no idea what the business case for such a website would be (and heaven knows, I don't expect it to be simple to write), but with awareness of environmental issues on the rise it seems like it ought to have a market. If Google wants a next project for their "organize all the information in the world" push, that might be a worthwhile thing for them to tackle...

Comments

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

While there is some islanding in the grid, for the most part it, is just a big network. While you might be close to a hydro power plant, that power comes in spurts; another local gas plant is only on for peak times; large possibly far away plants are likely taking the constant load. It is extremely complicated. At best you could get a picture of what your actual mix looks like at the moment.

That said, I think the exercise is mostly moot. If you are using 1 kWh of completely green electricity off the grid, that just means someone else's mix is slightly higher in other sources.

So, the solution is either to get a really local source (i.e. put up some solar panels, a wind generator, a micro-hydro turbine, or whatever. Or pay some money to change the overall mix, that is pay actual green suppliers through one of the systems available. It won't change the mix you use, but will change (very slightly) the overall mix, and push in the direction of getting the whole grid more green.

If you feel like doing hero's work on the issue, you might see if you can get a feed-in-tariff bill passed in Massachusetts. You can see the one B and I and a group we are a port of are working on here in Maine here: http://www.midcoastgreencollaborative.org/Feed_in_tariff_info.html

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A website which might be useful for the problem, is one which makes the state of the current grid load available to all users. Then you could plug in your hybrid when there was excess capacity (which would be even more green than solar PV power). This is basically what is hoped for in the 'smart grid', however as it is user driven and web based, it would be vastly more cheaper to implement.

I think I will see if it is possible... might be a huge help. Thanks for stirring my mind in this direction.