Electricity Source

The carbon footprint of EV is largely determined by the source of power they use for recharging. Despite their EV deployment, CARB states do not have uniformly low-carbon electricity footprints. In terms of the carbon intensity of electricity generation (in kgs. of CO2

per MWh), Vermont has by far the lowest carbon intensity—by an order of magnitude less than other states [80]. Washington and Oregon follow Vermont. Other metropolitans including Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, and New York rank still better than average. Policy efforts in support of EV could focus on those states with the greatest potential to deliver carbon reductions.

Because there are environmental concerns related to power generation of EV, power generation becomes critical. Many scholars refer to source of electricity used for EV. Some of the forecasting literature responded to these concerns by using scenarios. Although in the Northwest most electricity is generated by hydropower, in general, a major percentage of electricity generated throughout the US comes from coal.

22 Nuclear power is also used for power generation in the Midwest and East. Using nuclear and coal powered electricity in charging EV is being criticized by many, stating that one environmental problem is merely being replaced by another. Particularly, if EV prevails, the power required for EV will be another issue that needs to be addressed. This issue should be tackled by the energy sector ahead of time. However, the energy need is not the only issue related to this. The concern is that if EV prevails and becomes the major alternative to ICE, then the need for extra energy will be compensated by using more coal and nuclear power, which would defeat the purpose – at least the environmental aspect– of transitioning to EV.

Therefore, addressing whether electricity is generated by clean energy sources or not is necessary and has been added to the model as a barrier for EV Adoption.

A study in Germany, created a power generation portfolio, where the life cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) impacts for different power-grid mix scenarios. In German power generation portfolio, 43% comes from coal, 23% from nuclear, 13% from renewables. We have compared this to the US power generation portfolio. In the US, 39% of power is generated from coal, 20% from nuclear, 6% from renewables, and finally 7% effrom hydropower [69]. One can notice that US electricity generation from coal is very close to that of Germany, nuclear is almost same as that of Germany’s. It can be incurred that American power generation portfolio may be considered environmentally less sound in comparison to German power portfolio. Therefore, American Distribution Grid’s Impact on Environment may be more critical than German’s.

While coal once dominated American power generation, today many regions have much cleaner sources of electricity as part of their grid mix, which keeps the global warming emissions of today’s EV lower than that of the average gasoline vehicle. It is important to note

23 that, even in the states that depend largely on coal to generate electricity, EV do not cause more carbon emissions than conventional vehicles [81]. As renewable energy taking place of coal, EV will be even more attractive to governments and consumers with environmental concerns. Union of Concerned scientists’ article suggests that there is a large window of variation in greenhouse gas emissions scale from utility power generation. The highest emission rate is more than 2.5 times that of the lowest [81]. By targeting EV policies at select regions, especially those with cleaner power production, the U.S. federal government can open the way to long-term benefits of EV use. Upstate New York, the Northwest, California, Virginia, the Mississippi River Valley, and New England are a few of the lower-carbon-utility regions [82].

Research into individual localities is needed to analyze how EV recharging induces marginal power demands and consequently emissions. If vehicles can be charged at low-peak hours, if they do not over-consume available carbon electricity supply, or if they provide more low-carbon fuel supplies by providing battery storage space, EV will deliver a lower-low-carbon outcome [82].

Due to the ability to decouple demand and supply, energy storage systems are rated as promising candidates to address some of the critical issues caused by the integration of substantial number of renewables into the future grid [83-85]. Within the portfolio of available energy storage technologies, it is projected that batteries will play a promising role in future highly renewable electricity scenarios, especially for storages at distribution grid level [86].

Therefore, there is a renewed interest within the industry, R&D institutions and academia to develop and deploy advanced and environmentally sound batteries for stationary applications

24 [87]. Tesla came up with their batteries under Tesla Energy (Powerwall and Powerpack), and these will be the energy storage for both residential and commercial use. Powerwall is designed for residential use, when Powerpack is for commercial use. There are three main drivers of Powerwall usage for the consumer. 1) it enables the customer to store electricity at the off-peak hours, 2) it allows the customer to utilize renewable energy systems for the household, 3) is that the energy stored in the battery can be transmitted back to grid, and this is a revenue generator for the customer. Powerpack is for the commercial use, and there are also 3 drivers to Powerpack usage: 1) the government regulation –in CA specifically – coerces utilities to generate certain percentage of their energy from stored energy, 2) unreliable energy infrastructure; where there are frequent electricity cuts, 3) peak vs off-peak hour advantage for the enterprises. Enterprises can store energy at the off-peak hours [88]. In particular for residential charging, this would be a remedy to benefit from low peak hours regardless of the time of the day.

Furthermore, utilizing the powerpack, the production of electricity during peak hours can be lowered, which means relying on electricity grid off of fossil fuels, coal and nuclear energy.

According to Tesla, once we’re able to rely on renewable energy sources for our power consumption, the top 50% of the dirtiest power generation resources could retire early. We would have a cleaner, smaller, and more resilient energy grid [89].

State public utility commissions must be encouraged to reassess their regulatory frameworks to harmonize technical standards, streamline the installation of household and commercial charging stations, and use electricity rate structures to promote charging at off-peak hours.

Scheduling EV loads at night, for example, can actually improve the economics of power

25 providers by making better use of existing assets. If utilities do so, increased numbers of EV could improve the efficiency of electricity systems and reduce rates.

According to our findings in the literature review, environmental concerns related to EV were classified under 4 categories in our initial framework:

1) Battery Production

2) Vehicle Operation (Tank-to Wheel) 3) Battery Disposal

4) Originating Power Source (Wells-to-Tank)