AT&T to introduce natural gas vans

Alex Kovnat

Some thoughts about natural gas-burning vehicles:

As we all know, nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere in the world has been dealt a frustrating, tragic blow with the Fukushima disaster this past month. As nuclear power is almost certain to be phased out in Germany (and possibly elsewhere) and as coal is also under fire because of its emissions issues, it appears that natural gas fired generators will be called on to do more and more heavy hitting in meeting mankind’s electric power needs.

What this amounts to is this: If your local utility company is using natural gas fired turbines to generate electric power and you have an electric vehicle such as the Nissan Leaf, your electric car is in effect a natural gas burning vehicle.

So we need to ask ourselves: What yields a better well-to-wheels efficiency: A vehicle like the Nissan Leaf drawing power from a utility power system utilizing gas turbine powered generators? Or, a natural gas burning spark ignition engine vehicle?

The well-to-wheels efficiency of the latter, can be improved with a hybrid electric transmission arrangement a la the Toyota Prius. I hope to see more discussion and debate on this matter, as the world continues to come to grips with the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.

March 29, 2011