Why go electric? It’s not just about the climate.
When turning heat into motion — converting heat energy into work energy — a lot gets lost in translation. Basically, the second law of thermodynamics says, “It’ll cost you.” Thermo heat just won’t convert to dynamic motion without a fight.
Most gasoline-powered vehicles, for instance, only convert one-fifth of the energy you pay for into actual motion. The cooling, lubricating, and exhaust systems must get rid of the energy in four of every five gallons of fuel. You also pay for those systems. If they fail, the engine melts.
Well, so? Is electricity better?
Electric energy is already work energy. Moving electrons don’t need costly translation from one kind of energy to another. So, electric vehicles can be three to four times more efficient than gasoline powered vehicles. EVs waste less energy.
EVs waste so much less, they still save energy compared to gasoline vehicles even when utilities use fossil fuel to generate the electricity, because the power plants — even coal — are way more efficient than gasoline-powered cars. And, utilities can use solar, wind, and hydro-generated electricity when available.
What about home heating? After all, natural gas boilers can be close to 100% efficient, going from heat to heat. Though it sounds ridiculous, heat pumps can be 300% to 400% efficient. The trick is that they use energy you pay for to use energy you don’t pay for. Yes, when there is less “free-range” energy, as in extremely cold weather, their efficiency may drop below 100%. But the latest ones still do the job. So, for a few days a year, a heat pump may draw more energy than a gas boiler, but its savings the rest of the year far outweigh those few days.
Moving from fossil fuels to electric energy cuts out the thermodynamic middleman. Just by converting to electric energy, Massachusetts can drastically reduce its energy dependence.
Sun and wind don’t cost anything. They also can’t be embargoed or blockaded. Improvements in renewable energy technology have made it the cheapest way to generate electricity, giving us the chance to move away from dependence on burning fossil fuels.
In Massachusetts, we are seeing our neighbor towns using the state’s incentives to save money by becoming Climate Leader Communities. Ashfield, for example, is using an $890,000 state grant to install solar panels on town buildings, saving taxpayers $100,000 a year by generating its own electricity.
Deerfielders, at our Town Meeting on May 11 please make our town a Climate Leader by voting “Yes” for the Zero-Emission Vehicle First policy and the Specialized Energy Code. We can make this energy work for us.
David Gilbert Keith is a member of the Deerfield Energy Conservation Committee.