Green alternatives to vehicles, home heating and cooling, and other choices could be either good or bad for the environment, depending on where they are used, a new study reveals.
Electricity is used to power many of these devices, and the generation of this energy is not without environmental consequences. In regions where most electricity is generated by burning coal and oil, battery-powered devices may be even more harmful to the natural ecosystem of Earth than using traditional devices, researchers concluded. The generation of electrical power for battery-driven devices can actually release more carbon to the atmosphere than utilizing traditional technology, investigators calculated.
University of Toronto researchers developed a new threshold for determining how eco-friendly products are under specific conditions.
Electrical generation in a region must generate one gigawatt hour (Gwh) of power while producing less than 600 tons of carbon dioxide, in order for electrification to pay off, the team concluded. This is about the amount of electricity that is needed for 100 private homes over the course of a year. In regions where electrical generation is over this mark, "going green" with current-day technology could actually be harmful to the environment, contributing to global climate change.
Australia, China and India are all nations with averages over this threshold. Part of the reason for this is the prodigious consumption of coal in those nations. This fuel source generates about 1,000 tons of greenhouse gases (carbon equivalent) for every GWh of power produced. Natural gas comes in right at the 600 tons/GWh mark, while nuclear and hydropower produce almost no carbon emissions.
Canada was one of the nations with the lowest carbon use for each unit of energy production, at slightly under 200 tons/GWh, the study found.
"Despite that many believe our power is generated using fossil fuels from Alberta, most of Canada's electricity mix comes from hydropower and nuclear facilities," Chris Kennedy, a civil engineer from the University of Toronto, said.
Examining the nation in greater detail revealed that devices sold as eco-friendly have significantly different impacts on the environment, depending on where they were used. In Alberta, a province still highly-dependent on fossil fuels, it is better for the environment to use a natural gas heater in homes than private geothermal sources, the study found. In British Columbia and Ontario, geo-thermal was found to be better for the environment.
Data was analyzed from four earlier studies to collect information for the new investigation.
Analysis of the role of electrical generation methods on supposedly eco-friendly products was profiled in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Photo: Lydur Skulason | Flickr
