What is more efficient in terms of greenhouse gases, buses with diesel engines or electric buses charged with Diesel Generators ?
In: Engineering
People seem to be assuming you can just compare the overall efficiency of the diesel engine vs generator, as if the charging of batteries is 100% efficient! You can get very good rates if you keep within 20-80% charge capacity, but nowhere near 100% if you actually use the full capacity, and for the significant charge time there usually isn’t the option to fully optimise for the 20-80% cycle.
So it really is dependant on the exact route, number of miles/hours of service required before next chance to charge etc. But on average, over a year in all weathers, I would bet that an individual ICE diesel still wins. However, the benefit with batteries is that you can find cleaner sources of electricity, or at least have the generators outside of densely populated areas, reducing air pollution for most people. The nearest you’ll get to “clean” diesel is biofuel made from used cooking oils.
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