In this section, we explore energy sources used to produce electricity and to power our vehicles. The next page gives an overview of how electric power is generated. What sources are used to generate that power?
As you can see from the chart, about 70% of the electric power in the US comes from non-renewable resources such as coal and natural gas. The Peoples Republic of China gets about 70% of its power from coal alone.
So, most of the electric energy produced in the world today is from some kind of fossil fuel.
For a list and description, see types of fossil fuels that are used to generate all this power.
Ethanol is sometimes put forward as a viable alternative to oil. Check here to see if this is possible, and what the pros and cons might be.
Back to the chart: about half of the other power in the chart comes from sources other than coal. Of this half, you have 40% natural gas and nuclear. While these sources are cleaner than coal, they create a lot of waste relative to the remaining 10% which includes "alternative and renewable" power.
The biggest challenge facing alternative and renewable energy sources these days is storage. This is true for utility scale power and electric vehicles. You can generate all the power you want from remote windmills, but where do you put it when not needed? This problem is covered in the renewable energy storage, and energy storage pages.
More specific to the electric vehicle are storage batteries. EVs currently use lead-acid, nickel metal hydride, and lithium-ion battery chemistries. These batteries provide practical but limited energy density when compared to fossil fuels.
Go to the Lithium ion Battery page to see how much energy you can currently expect from these storage devices.
The latest and perhaps best idea for energy storage for electric vehicles, and some grid applications, might turn out to be the large or ultra capacitor. This device is explained and a how it works discussion is given.
