Hidden benefits of electric vehicles for addressing climate change
Abstract
There is an increasingly hot debate on whether the replacement of conventional vehicles (CVs) by electric vehicles (EVs) should be delayed or accelerated since EVs require higher cost and cause more pollution than CVs in the manufacturing process. Here we reveal two hidden benefits of EVs for addressing climate change to support the imperative acceleration of replacing CVs with EVs. As EVs emit much less heat than CVs within the same mileage, the replacement can mitigate urban heat island effect (UHIE) to reduce the energy consumption of air conditioners, benefitting local and global climates. To demonstrate these effects brought by the replacement of CVs by EVs, we take Beijing, China, as an example. EVs emit only 19.8% of the total heat emitted by CVs per mile. The replacement of CVs by EVs in 2012 could have mitigated the summer heat island intensity (HII) by about 0.94°C, reduced the amount of electricity consumed daily by air conditioners in buildings by 14.44 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), and reduced daily CO₂ emissions by 10,686 tonnes.
- Authors:
-
- Hunan Univ., Changsha (China); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Hunan Univ., Changsha (China)
- Hunan Univ., Changsha (China); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1194167
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
Citation Formats
Li, Canbing, Cao, Yijia, Zhang, Mi, Wang, Jianhui, Liu, Jianguo, Shi, Haiqing, and Geng, Yinghui. Hidden benefits of electric vehicles for addressing climate change. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1038/srep09213.
Li, Canbing, Cao, Yijia, Zhang, Mi, Wang, Jianhui, Liu, Jianguo, Shi, Haiqing, & Geng, Yinghui. Hidden benefits of electric vehicles for addressing climate change. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09213
Li, Canbing, Cao, Yijia, Zhang, Mi, Wang, Jianhui, Liu, Jianguo, Shi, Haiqing, and Geng, Yinghui. Thu .
"Hidden benefits of electric vehicles for addressing climate change". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09213. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1194167.
@article{osti_1194167,
title = {Hidden benefits of electric vehicles for addressing climate change},
author = {Li, Canbing and Cao, Yijia and Zhang, Mi and Wang, Jianhui and Liu, Jianguo and Shi, Haiqing and Geng, Yinghui},
abstractNote = {There is an increasingly hot debate on whether the replacement of conventional vehicles (CVs) by electric vehicles (EVs) should be delayed or accelerated since EVs require higher cost and cause more pollution than CVs in the manufacturing process. Here we reveal two hidden benefits of EVs for addressing climate change to support the imperative acceleration of replacing CVs with EVs. As EVs emit much less heat than CVs within the same mileage, the replacement can mitigate urban heat island effect (UHIE) to reduce the energy consumption of air conditioners, benefitting local and global climates. To demonstrate these effects brought by the replacement of CVs by EVs, we take Beijing, China, as an example. EVs emit only 19.8% of the total heat emitted by CVs per mile. The replacement of CVs by EVs in 2012 could have mitigated the summer heat island intensity (HII) by about 0.94°C, reduced the amount of electricity consumed daily by air conditioners in buildings by 14.44 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), and reduced daily CO₂ emissions by 10,686 tonnes.},
doi = {10.1038/srep09213},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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Urban heat island modelling of a tropical city: case of Kuala Lumpur
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- Geoscience Letters, Vol. 6, Issue 1
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