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Electric extras

Pictures of spreads from New Scientist magazine

In your look at alternatives to oil (19 May, p 34), the statement that "as electricity generation becomes cleaner, the emissions of electric vehicles will fall further still" is open to challenge.

It is normal policy to allow all non-fossil fuel power stations to produce all the power they can all the time. Fossil fuel stations then make up the difference between that and the demand.

It follows that any extra demand, such as using an electric car rather than a diesel car, is met in its entirety by burning extra fossil fuel. This is true whether non-fossil fuel stations account for 1 per cent or 99 per cent of electricity demand.

Thus, only when all existing demand is satisfied by non-fossil fuel stations and there is some spare capacity, does the electric car start to avoid the burning of fossil fuel.



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