Racing from Oil to Clean Electric Power

Today’s hybrid electric-gasoline cars, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, have been on the market for a decade and are gaining in popularity as they save on gas consumption.

However, enhanced versions called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) could also help reduce carbon emissions from the transport fleet by using low-cost, low-emission electricity from the national grid instead of fossil fuels.

Volatile gas prices and concerns about climate change could eventually drive consumers to PHEVs. General Motors could have its new Volt out as early as next year, and other automakers are accelerating development of competing models.

In February, EPRI announced that Ford, seven utility partners and a battery maker are joining in a U.S. trial test program for the Ford Escape PHEV prototype. Last year, a similar partnership was announced with General Motors and 34 utilities, focusing on integration of plug-ins with the electric grid. Other carmakers worldwide are joining the game as well.

The U.S. transportation sector, with its “near-complete dependence on fossil fuels” is responsible for about a third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The potential benefits of plug-in vehicles include:

• Substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions in the transport sector as a result of using nuclear energy and other carbon-free power sources to charge the cars

• Reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels, with their price volatility and supply instabilities. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers claims that plug-ins “could reduce the consumption of liquid fuels by at least 70 percent compared with conventional cars”

• Clean air benefits from the reduction in emissions of such organic compounds as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ground ozone and particulates.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles, unlike electric-only vehicles, would run on gasoline if needed, and could be recharged overnight. Recharging at cheap off-peak rates would be good for consumers and for electric utilities, which would benefit from improved system efficiencies.

Studies indicate that using electricity as an automotive fuel would reduce fuel costs to an equivalent of around 75 cents a gallon of gas—and recharging a PHEV would draw only as much power as a dishwasher.

A joint study by the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Resources Defense Council shows that even with the current electric grid, there would be immediate air quality benefits due to a reduction of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

The EPRI/NRDC study said, “If [greenhouse gases] become regulated in the future, the value of [plug-in hybrids] in reducing … emissions may end up being twice that of increased electricity sales” for charging those vehicles.

Plug-ins “are transformational in that they introduce electricity as a meaningful automotive fuel to a potentially very large market,” said Mark Duvall, manager of technology development for EPRI’s electric transportation program. “Under nearly any foreseeable scenario, electricity is a low-carbon fuel compared with gasoline and diesel.”

Green benefits certainly depend on greater development of low-carbon sources of power on the grid. Recent research concludes that a low-carbon electricity system will yield the most greenhouse gas reductions in conjunction with a substantial plug-in fleet. Nuclear energy, with its clean, low-carbon, high-reliability baseload availability, is an ideal source of electricity for this use.

Challenges for plug-in development include R&D investments in car and battery design, and in infrastructure for recharging the batteries. In Israel, 2,500 charging stations are already in place, in anticipation of the broad availability of PHEV cars on the market.

—Nuclear Energy Overview, July 2009