Dear friends,
Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
It has been long since I wrote anything.
After returning to India, I find many Battery operated 2 wheelers on the road. Without any noise or warning, they simply zip past you. Few handbills and advertisements in local news paper promote these as a cheap, safe and pollution free mode of transportation in the city.
I wonder are they really cheap and pollution free?
First, these vehicles run on batteries that are recharged at home using Electricity. Generally Electricity for homes is subsidized by charging higher tariff to the Industry, thus it appears to be cheap because of the subsidy. If the real cost is considered than it may not be as cheap as the general perception is.
Secondly, recharging battery is an inefficient use of electricity. Lots of electricity is wasted in heat and vibration of electrodes. As the battery ages, it consumes more and more Electricity for every recharge. People, who use Invertors at home, are well aware of this high consumption of electricity. Typically Invertors in home take almost double the time of usage for recharging the battery. Replacement and disposal cost of old battery is also high.
As far as source of electricity is concerned, most of the electricity generated in our country is by Thermal Power Plants by burning Coal. These plants are the biggest polluters of environment as they generate Green house Gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide plus NOx and SOx responsible for Acid rain. Huge amount of Ash (up to 30% of the coal consumed) that contains heavy metals and toxic chemicals is generated as a residue after burning coal, ultimately contaminates soil and ground water. Transmission and distribution losses from the Power plant, up to the house hold are also high (up to 20%). Thus the source of energy itself is the biggest polluter.
For burning, pure Hydrogen is the cleanest fuel, followed by Natural Gas/LPG followed by Petrol/Diesel and then last is Coal. Hydro-Electric, Nuclear and Wind Power are also relatively less polluting, but have their own issues of heavy Capital investment, Safety and Social issues.
Another observation is that, to save power, the driver of these vehicles tends to drive it without switching on head light during night, posing serious safety hazard for him and others.
As of now, I feel that by using these vehicles people are in fact increasing pollution. By just shifting the polluting source elsewhere, people are fooling themselves with a false sense of savings and so called eco friendliness.
Having said all that, I must acknowledge and accept that these vehicles are amazingly silent and definitely reduce sound pollution on roads drastically. Let us hope that in future, major source of electricity will be clean like Wind or Nuclear power or something else and the society will truly benefit by using these vehicles.
What do you say? Feel free to share your thoughts.
Best regards
Zero
Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
It has been long since I wrote anything.
After returning to India, I find many Battery operated 2 wheelers on the road. Without any noise or warning, they simply zip past you. Few handbills and advertisements in local news paper promote these as a cheap, safe and pollution free mode of transportation in the city.
I wonder are they really cheap and pollution free?
First, these vehicles run on batteries that are recharged at home using Electricity. Generally Electricity for homes is subsidized by charging higher tariff to the Industry, thus it appears to be cheap because of the subsidy. If the real cost is considered than it may not be as cheap as the general perception is.
Secondly, recharging battery is an inefficient use of electricity. Lots of electricity is wasted in heat and vibration of electrodes. As the battery ages, it consumes more and more Electricity for every recharge. People, who use Invertors at home, are well aware of this high consumption of electricity. Typically Invertors in home take almost double the time of usage for recharging the battery. Replacement and disposal cost of old battery is also high.
As far as source of electricity is concerned, most of the electricity generated in our country is by Thermal Power Plants by burning Coal. These plants are the biggest polluters of environment as they generate Green house Gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide plus NOx and SOx responsible for Acid rain. Huge amount of Ash (up to 30% of the coal consumed) that contains heavy metals and toxic chemicals is generated as a residue after burning coal, ultimately contaminates soil and ground water. Transmission and distribution losses from the Power plant, up to the house hold are also high (up to 20%). Thus the source of energy itself is the biggest polluter.
For burning, pure Hydrogen is the cleanest fuel, followed by Natural Gas/LPG followed by Petrol/Diesel and then last is Coal. Hydro-Electric, Nuclear and Wind Power are also relatively less polluting, but have their own issues of heavy Capital investment, Safety and Social issues.
Another observation is that, to save power, the driver of these vehicles tends to drive it without switching on head light during night, posing serious safety hazard for him and others.
As of now, I feel that by using these vehicles people are in fact increasing pollution. By just shifting the polluting source elsewhere, people are fooling themselves with a false sense of savings and so called eco friendliness.
Having said all that, I must acknowledge and accept that these vehicles are amazingly silent and definitely reduce sound pollution on roads drastically. Let us hope that in future, major source of electricity will be clean like Wind or Nuclear power or something else and the society will truly benefit by using these vehicles.
What do you say? Feel free to share your thoughts.
Best regards
Zero
simple laws of physics support your take on re-charging the batteries. the more times the energy is converted from one form or one source to another, the more the loss..
ReplyDeletei hope to see a practical solution for our energy needs very soon.. or its gonna be too late.
PS: its so nice to have u back :)
Though I agree with you ... the key is to have the air free from pollution from those millions of petrol/diesel machines on road. Electric vehicles can curb the smoke on road.
ReplyDeleteOverall, we are yet ages away from inventing the most wanted machine. For years, we were happy with the conventional ones ... hope the time is ripe to look for other non-conventional modes, like solar, nuclear or wind power.
A thought-provoking one on the new year!
what you said about cheap and pollution free...yes this is a big question ...if we'll observe the electricity consumption then it is more costly ...if instead of electricity some solar charger will be used then it would be better ...yes what you told about the increasing pollution is true...we all know these facts but still we are using ....now-a-days in one home at least two vehicle is necessary ...one two wheeler and one four wheeler ....if we can reduce this to one then might be the pollution factor will be reduced ....
ReplyDeleteelectricity is not much subsidised, the private power plants are selling to SEB's at normal market rates itself...
ReplyDeletei think these vehicles makes economical sense and are lesser harmful to the environmnet, thou the electricity is being made at thermal power plants, considering the cost per unity of electricity, it might not be tht harmful
tagged you for 10 honest points :), add your post
ReplyDeleteme soch raha tha ki ye baterry wale vehicles..
ReplyDeletespecially india ke liye banaaye gaye hai
yahan 17 rs. costed petrol is sold at the rate of 50... so.. jisko time hai aaram se safar ka aanand utha sakte hai wo use kar sakte hai ..
dusri baat to ye hai ki... all these vehicles are toys.. its better to use cycles rather than these vehicles... han aged people use kare .. unke liye best hai ye
There is a need to conserve electricity ...and there should be measures taken at homes and industries.Eco friendly and energy saving homes can and will make a huge difference any day.
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