It’s NOT Been A Good Week For ‘Green’ Transporation Options
We've got to start factoring fires into those carbon footprint calculations
Every method of harnessing energy comes with its own set of negative trade-offs.
Burning wood is inefficient and can lead to deforestation. Whale oil just wasn’t a sustainable option. Coal was known for soot and smoke. Nuclear has waste products (and a few very memorable historical failures). Petroleum products are volatile.
But the green activists don’t talk much about the complications associated with green energy. Those complications are mainly connected with the battery. That can mean (ethical/ecological) problems associated with the mining and production of the basic materials, the geo-political problems of China’s virtual monopoly on their manufacture, or complications when it comes to end-of-life disposal. There’s also that complicating factor of a massive increase in total vehicle weight… and the wear-and-tear that will have on infrastructure, including the increased carbon cost of maintaining roads.
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As seldom as we hear talk about those issues, we hear even less about the fire hazard associated with the normal use of these batteries — or the ecological effect of a raging battery fire.
News of the week may change that. We may be forced to pay more attention to the hazards of using these battery-powered devices.
This isn’t a new problem. Years ago, Samsung had to discontinue one of their cellphone lines after a series of battery fires. This is the same problem, on a larger scale.
Some European cities have scrapped plans of electric bus fleets after battery fires in the busses ignited, taking out an entire row of nearby vehicles with them.
This week, a cargo ship is burning because of a battery fire.
The Japanese-owned ship carrying 2,857 cars, including 25 electric cars, is close to a chain of islands and the World Heritage-listed Wadden Sea, an important habitat for migratory birds.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has warned about the possible dangers of electric vehicle battery fires, a hazard that stems from thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that causes uncontrolled battery temperature and pressure increases. — CTV
That same article references a similar fire last year, in which another ship burned for 13 days before eventually sinking.
As the cargo ship fires remind us, ev battery fires are especially difficult to put out, having a chance of bursting into flame again even after they seem to be extinguished.
It’s not just cars and phones. It’s those bikes and scooters, too.
One AP headline reads: Fire deaths prompt federal review of e-bike rules
Fire deaths. Like the four killed upstairs in New York after a bike shop burned out of control.
Just this week, we heard about people jumping out of windows to escape the flames caused by an electric scooter that was being charged.
When the lithium battery in an electric scooter caught fire at an apartment in San Francisco’s Tenderloin on Monday morning, two people escaped flames by jumping from a window, officials said. One of them was taken to a local hospital with severe burn injuries… — SFGate
