There are hundreds of power plants in the US fueled by coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, hydro and solar. All these power sources are combined on the grid to provide one big average mix and one collective cloud of CO2 and Methane. We all use the same mix and are equally responsible for it. US Energy Information Administration
Let’s disregard the source and consider how energy is used after the power plant.
The Average US Driver
- Drives 800 miles per month
- Gets 22 mpg
- Burns 35 gallons of gas
- Generates 700 lbs of CO2
Petroleum Refining Has a Big Carbon Footprint
On a daily basis, refining petroleum uses as much electricity as 53.5 million homes.
- From well to wheels, it takes 5 kWh to produce 1 gallon of gas.
- We must drill, frack, extract, refine, transport and pump it into a car.
- In the US we burn approximately 300 million gallons of gas a day.
- It takes 1.5B kWh per day, just to make gas. (5 kWh per gallon X 300M gallons)
- 132M US homes consume an average of 28 kWh per day.
- It takes 3.7B kWh per day to power all US homes. (132M X 28 = 3.7B kWh)
- 1.5B kWh per day for gas / 28 kWh per day per home = 53.5M homes
Charge EVs Instead Of Making Gas
If we divert the 100 kWh of energy used to make 20 gallons of gas into an EV battery, it will go 400 miles.
On a National Scale
There are 2.5 million EVs on US roads, each one eliminating 140 kWh per month.
In total, each month they eliminate 35 GWh (350,000,000 kWh) of load from the grid.
(2.5 million EVs X 140 kWh = 350 million kWh)
How EVs Are Powering Your Air Conditioner.
The average house draws 800 kWh per month from the grid.
350 million kWh / 800 kWh per home = enough power for 437,500 homes.
If half of US cars (150 million) were EVs, the energy saved is equivalent to the monthly bill for 25,375,000 homes.
How Lithium Reduces Our Carbon Footprint
Greenhouse Gas Emissions From a Typical Passenger Vehicle (epa.gov)