The Effect of New Energy Vehicle on Greenhouse Gasses (Research Paper Sample)

ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF NEW ENERGY VEHICLE ON GREENHOUSE GASSES
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INTRODUCTION
Until recently, there has been heavy reliance on oil in the automotive industry. Due to raised political concerns, economic issues, as environmental degradation, a lot of governments have been calling for more innovative ways of energy (Kintner-Meyer et.al, 2007). According to environmental act 2001 of UK, energy sources should limit exposure and emissions. Thus, due to technological advances, new ways are now emerging, including the electric vehicles (EVs). Research has shown that this new source of energy is able to reduce emissions to a great extent and could be a solution to solving some of the degradation issues (Norman et.al, 2006). There are other studies that have argued that electric vehicles led to a lot of emissions during production and use, thus more innovative ways need be devised (Thiel et.al, 2010). Thus, a study on the sources and their impacts would very important to countries in their endeavours to reducing environmental degradation.
Until the end of 20th Century, the industry has been relying on oil (Richardson, 2013). However, there is scanty information regarding the new developments in automotive industry and the concept has thus remained widely misunderstood. Few relations have been done on the energy sources to greenhouse emissions which gives a base to the current analysis. The current analysis will thus assess the link between greenhouse emissions and electric vehicles, where emissions of the electric vehicle will be compared with the convectional oil vehicles.
Thus the current research will be undertaken with an aim of assessing the effect of electric vehicles on greenhouse gases emissions. The study will seek to answer to the following questions
1 Which are the different sources of vehicle energy
2 What evolutions have been taking place in automotive industry with respect to energy sources?
3 Is the use of electric energy source better in reducing greenhouse gasses to oil sources
The current analysis will be of great important to a wide range of audience. The results will be useful to policy makers who can be able to make environmental policies based on facts. Linking emissions to the energy production would help in evaluation of the best energy source that can be embraced by technology developers in other industries.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Energy source in automotive industry and developments
Until the 20th Century, the industry has been relying on a sole source of energy. Oil has been the major source of energy until development to use of electricity. In the past, wind and animas were the major source of energy to fuel movement (Norman et.al, 2006). Technological advances led to development of first-generation biofuels. Later, the second-generation biofuels were developed. Later alga fuels was advanced. Due to emissions associated with this sources of energy, recent developments have been on use of electricity as the source of energy. The first generation vehicles mainly sourced their energy from biofuels including ethanol and biodiesel. The second generation on the other hand made use liquid biomass and hydrogenated vegetable oil. On the other hand, later development used hydrogen associated with fuel. With later development leading to electric energy. The electric vehicles started with hybrids to fully electric vehicles (Turton & Moura, 2008).
From the use of animal in the history and wind as the source of energy, technological advances had been in play where more innovative ways needed to be devised. Oil became the ultimate source of energy. It was seen to fuel vehicles with little effort and at the same time it was available. At that time of development, there was less concern for environmental conservation. A lot of developments and industrialisation had not occurred thus the environments could be able to assimilate the waste. As time went by, environmental concerns, hard hit by climate change and global warming started to catch up, which meant that people needed to change their way of doing things to deal with the alarm (Samaras & Meisterling, 2008). This led to use of biofuels which were less pollutant and renewable. Less emissions were experienced. However, they were not able to meet demand as countries were moving to globalisation. Therefore, a more noble solution needed to be sourced. This led to technological advancement of hydrogenated vehicles. The methods was less pollutant although meeting demand was hard. In addition, a chemical reaction with a less decomposed hydrogen could lead to molecules that were more harmful to the environment. Recent developments led to electric energy sources. This has been used in trains and vehicles. Although an expensive source of energy it has high sustainability and helped reduce the level of emissions (Gnansounou et.al, 2009).
It is clear that through the development, a more recent development lead to reduction of emissions and is more sustainable. Although the earlier methods had less environmental effects, they are slow with the high rate of industrialisation. Thus, better options should be development. Better options in terms of ensuring the economy is moved, and at the same time the environment hazards are reduced. Therefore, this developments are very useful for development of the current research since we can now be able to make comparisons of the different sources. Based on weights and intensity of use, oil and electricity play a great role thus will be used for comparisons.
Impacts of the energy sources
The oil sources have been associated with pollutions, emissions that affects biodiversity, environmental degradation, global warming, oil has become a scarce resource, and over-dependence of countries which has led to victimisation. Oil has been associated with the natural resource curse in Africa. This is because it has realised that most oil producing countries are always in war for the resources. Therefore, this has led to yearn of more innovative ways that could help resolve the issues (Richardso et.al, 2010). Although this was a reliable source of energy as it was readily available it has led to a lot of climate change issues. In addition, oil has been seen to fuel economic development in producing countries. However, this countries have been seen to be target points for developed economies and thus has results to political instabilities and conflicts. Therefore the oil source has not been sustainable economically, socially, and environmentally.
Electric as a source of energy can be gathered fossil fuels, renewable energy, and natural gas. This is majorly from water sources, geothermal power, and biofuels. The geothermal and water forms the major sources of renewable electric power. This source of energy has been associated with less emissions. It has also been seen as a cheaper means of energy compared to oil. Richardson (2013) in his study reported that electric vehicles could be able to reduce public emission by 15%. Similarly, Turton & Moura (2008) reported that electric vehicles could save an economy 33% of their environmental protection efforts as it led to conservation. Use of the renewable sources of energy as well as natural energy forms a great venture for economies, this reduces their dependence on oil. Consequently, leading to self-sustenance. A research by Thiel et.al (2010) documented that greenhouse effect by electric sources were 21% lower compared to the oil sources. Similarly, the work of Samaras & Meisterling (2008) reported that wind energy was the least emission method, while oil was the worst in terms of emissions. The effect of the emissions on the planet have been severe which makes the electricity a better option compared to oil. Although wind has the least emissions, in terms of economic development it would slow growth and would need a lot of resources. Therefore, compared to electricity, again, electricity becomes a more favourable energy source