EarthsFuture

Electric car with solar and wind energy may change

the environment and economy: A tool for utilizing
the renewable energy resource
Quanhua Liu
ESSIC, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Abstract Energy and environmental issues are among the most important problems of public con-
cern. Wind and solar energy may be one of the alternative solutions to overcome energy shortage and
to reduce greenhouse gaseous emission. Using electric cars in cities can signicantly improve the air
quality there. Through our analyses and modeling on the basis of the National Centers for Environment
Prediction data we conrm that the amount of usable solar and wind energy far exceeds the worlds total
energy demand, considering the feasibility of the technology being used. Storing the surplus solar and
wind energy and then releasing this surplus on demand is an important approach to maintaining uninter-
rupted solar- and wind-generated electricity. This approach requires us to be aware of the available solar
and wind energy in advance in order to manage their storage. Solar and wind energy depends on weather
conditions and we know weather forecasting. This implies that solar and wind energy is predictable. In
this article, we demonstrate how solar and wind energy can be forecasted. We provide a web tool that can
be used by all to arrive at solar and wind energy amount at any location in the world. The tool is available
at www.renewableenergyst.org. The website also provides additional information on renewable energy,
which is useful to a wide range of audiences, including students, educators, and the general public.
1. Introduction
Total carbon dioxide (CO
2
) emission from fossil fuel burning reached 28 billion metric tons in 2005 and
the emission has resulted in the increase of CO
2
concentration in the atmosphere [International Energy
Agency, 2008]. CO
2
is called a greenhouse gas because it traps long-wave radiation escaping to space and
may be responsible for the increasing global mean surface temperature [Cotton and Pielke, 1995; Kiehl and
Trenberth, 1997]. Recent decrease of snow and ice quantities over the Arctic [Oelke et al., 2004] and the
collapse of a huge ice chunk in western Antarctica in March 2008 have brought more public attention to
climate change [Houghton, 2001]. Fossil fuel burning has also led to acid rain and atmospheric pollution.
Air quality of cities is mainly aected by vehicle emissions. When Beijing restricted the use of personal
vehicles (a car with an even-numbered tag may be used on even dates) during the 2008 Olympics, air
quality was signicantly improved [Wang et al., 2010]. We can imagine how good air could be if everyone
used electric vehicles. A shift from gasoline to electric cars would greatly boost the economy if we speed
up the switchover to electric cars. Certainly, more electric cars would mean fewer gasoline cars needed.
In addition, a faster shift to electric cars will need more new cars than before, so more new jobs will be
added. This article discussed a future perspective of zero-emission electric vehicles derived by solar and
wind energy. Solar and wind energy resources can meet the worlds demand. The total annual downward
solar energy at the surface is 6800 times more than the world annual energy consumption. The global
wind within 200 m of the surface provides much more power than current global power consumption.
Accurate estimation of global wind power is complex because the capture of wind power in one place
may aect wind power in another place.
Solar and wind energy has been used for a long time. Solar heat has been used to dry foods, cook food,
and heat water. Solar electricity has also become a unique energy resource on spacecrafts. Photovoltaic
(PV) cells can convert sunlight into electricity. Solar thermal technologies use concentrator systems to
heat a working gas or uid for running a conventional power plant [Forsberg et al., 2007]. Windmills have
been used to convert wind energy into mechanical energy for more than 1000 years. However, renewable
energies are still highly underutilized. A paper [Turner, 1999] in Science Magazine outlines the future of
RESEARCHARTICLE
10.1002/2013EF000206
Key Points:
Solar and wind energy are clean and
renewable
The renewable energy can be
converted into electricity
Electric cars powered by the
electricity will improve air quality
Corresponding author:
Q. Liu (qliu123@umd.edu)
Citation:
Liu, Q. (2013), Electric car with solar and
wind energy may change the
environment and economy: A tool for
utilizing the renewable energy
resource, Earths Future, 2, 7 13,
doi:10.1002/2013EF000206.
Received 30 SEP 2013
Accepted 19 NOV 2013
Accepted article online 9 DEC 2013
Published online 16 JAN 2014
This is an open access article under
the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
License, which permits use and distri-
bution in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited, the use
is non-commercial and no modica-
tions or adaptations are made.
LIU 2013 The Authors. 7
EarthsFuture 10.1002/2013EF000206
renewable energy. The technology for solar and wind energy is now ready for applications [Grimes et al.,
2007], but the cost is very challenging if environmental issues caused by fossil fuel burning are ignored
and the Earths treasury is never paid. In addition, to provide uninterrupted cost-eective energy supply,
the storage of solar and wind energy is necessary.
In this study, we analyzed 65 years (19482012) of reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environ-
ment Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) [Kistler et al., 2001]. It is
a 2.5

2.5

in latitude and longitude gridded data set. The data set is used for studying the global trend.
The NCEP T384 (50 km resolution) analysis data set that is of a higher spatial resolution and used for
imaging is used in our web tool. The downward solar radiation ux is obtained from the data sets.
Air temperature, surface pressure, and wind speed are used to calculate the surface wind power.
2. Solar Energy
The whole Earth, which has a cross section of 127,400,000 km
2
, approximately receives solar power of
1.740 10
17
W and reects about 30% of the power back to space. The annual incoming solar radiation
at the top of the atmosphere is about 5.5 10
24
J, and 60% of the energy reaches the surface. The total
annual downward solar energy at the surface is about 3.3 10
24
J, which is 6800 times more than the
worlds annual energy consumption. Even by excluding the water surface (70%) and assuming a solar
energy conversion eciency of 10% [Rhle et al., 2009], the usage of solar energy over 0.5% of the land
surface can meet the current global energy demand. The downward solar radiation at the surface depends
on time, latitude, atmosphere, aerosols/clouds, and surface conditions.
Solar energy can be converted directly or indirectly into other forms of energy, such as heat and electric-
ity. Through vegetation photosynthesis, solar radiation can transfer CO
2
in the atmosphere into biodiesel.
PV energy results from the conversion of sunlight into electricity through a PV cell, commonly called a
solar cell. The PV cell uses a part of solar radiation for generating electricity. Only a photon having enough
energy (its wavelength <1120 nm) can free an electron from the silicon, generating current for electric-
ity. Solar thermal technologies use concentrator systems because of the high temperatures needed for
the working gas or uid. A parabolic trough and solar dish are two examples of ecient concentrator
systems [Due and Beckman, 2006]. The worlds largest parabolic trough facilities, located in the Mojave
Desert near Barstow, California, produce 354 MW of power at peak output. In the solar energy plant, oil
is used as the carrying medium to absorb solar thermal energy and goes through a heat exchanger to
generate steam, which is in turn used to run a conventional power plant. We may consider an alternative
model such as a combined natural gas/steam power plant as a solar energy plant. The combined natural
gas/steam plant achieves a conversion (from thermal to electric energy) eciency between 50% and 60%
[Bachmann et al., 1999], which is higher than that of a single steam plant, which is between 30% and 40%
[Due and Beckman, 2006]. The solar beam/steam plant would be the same as the conventional com-
bined natural gas/steam plant except that the fuel gas for ring the combustion chamber will be replaced
with solar heat.
Solar energy as a resource at high latitudes is poor. It is also low over the Amazon rainforest owing to the
large absorption and scattering of clouds there. However, solar radiation over deserts and bare soils at low
latitudes is rich. For example, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau may serve as a vast solar energy base for China.
A number of locations in deserts and other nonvegetated land regions have been proposed for poten-
tial solar energy applications [Service, 2005; Liu et al., 2009]. Additional factors, such as population, local
energy demands, and the cost of energy transportation, need to be considered when selecting a loca-
tion for a solar power plant. It needs to be pointed out that only a very small area of each proposed site is
needed for the actual plant.
3. Wind Energy
Wind energy is the atmospheric kinetic energy determined by the mass and motion speed of air. The spa-
tial gradients of the absorbed solar radiation by the Earth-atmospheric system are the primary source for
driving atmospheric and oceanic ows and transferring heat from one part of the globe to another. This
atmospheric motion contains huge kinetic energy that can be used to benet mankind. The kinetic energy
LIU 2013 The Authors. 8
EarthsFuture 10.1002/2013EF000206
K for an air mass m with a wind speed V can be expressed as:
K =
1
2
mV
2
(1)
The air mass can be derived from the product of its density and volume. For a constant wind speed of V
and normal section area of A during a given period of time t, the air mass can be expressed as:
m = AV t, (2)
and the kinetic energy of the air mass is:
K =
1
2
AtV
3
. (3)
The wind power density (power per area, W/m
2
) [Gipe, 2004] is:
Power density =
1
2
V
3
. (4)
The atmosphere approximately observes an ideal gas equation in which air density at the standard tem-
perature (T
0
) of 288.15 K and at a sea-level pressure (P
0
) of 101,325 Pa is 1.225 kg/m
3
[Gipe, 2004]. There-
fore, the air density (kg/m
3
) for a temperature T and pressure P can be written as:
=
0
P
P
0
T
0
T
= 1.225
P
101, 325
288.15
T
. (5)
Using equations 4 and 5 we can derive the wind power density at a temperature T (in Kelvin) and at pres-
sure P as:
Power density = 0.61125
P
101, 325
288.15
T
V
3
. (6)
Therefore, the wind power density is proportional to a cubic law of the wind speed. Because of the nonlin-
earity and the distribution function (e.g., Rayleigh distribution) describing the frequency of occurrence for
the wind speed, an energy pattern factor (Epf ) [Gipe, 2004] is applied when an averaged wind speed V
a
is
used to compute the wind power density. That is
Power density = Epf 0.61125
P
101, 325
288.15
T
V
3
a
. (7)
In this study, an energy pattern factor, Epf =1.91 for a Rayleigh distribution [Gipe, 2004], is applied when
an averaged wind speed is used to compute the wind power density.
4. Solar and Wind Energy Forecasting
One of the most challenging issues is how to provide constant year-round solar and wind energy day
and night. In addition to location, solar and wind energy is weather and time dependent. No or little
solar radiation can be used during night time and overcast/rainy day and wind turbines cannot operate
when there is no wind or when wind speed is too high (such as hurricanes). Therefore, it is necessary to
store surplus power on good operational hours/days and release it at other times, thus making the power
available on demand. This strategy has already been applied through the storage of potential energy
by pumping water uphill to a reservoir using wind power. A recently published New York Times article
[Matthew, 2008] described an idea for storing the suns heat using cost-eective storage. With a well-
insulated reservoir, heat can be stored for hours or even days. Molten salt may be an eective low-cost
solar heat battery (http://www.treehugger.com/les/2008/01/molten_salt_as.php). Methods of ecient
storage by themselves are, however, not sucient. It is equally important to estimate, plan, and manage
the energy need. The current data available from our website provide long-term and general distribution
of solar/wind energy and should be enough for strategic storage planning. But short-term forecasting of
the actual energy availability is critical to the scheduling of electricity production and storage.
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EarthsFuture 10.1002/2013EF000206
Figure 1. Errors in solar power forecasts as a function of forecast length. The black and dashed lines represent 3 h and daily means,
respectively.
We can predict, to a certain degree, solar and wind energy indirectly based on weather forecasting. In
this study, we use the NCEP global forecasting data to estimate the accuracy of predicting solar and wind
power. The bias and root mean square (RMS) error are determined by comparing the calculated solar and
wind power using the forecast elds and using analysis elds at the forecast time. The analysis elds are
produced by assimilating observations including satellite radiance measurements and a priori or fore-
cast information under dynamic constraints following a set of physical laws. The analysis elds are usually
treated as truth to analyze forecasting errors. We estimate the forecasting error for solar and wind energy
by using 5-day forecasting data in January 2008. The bias is very small at the global level, which is not
surprising because weekly variation of the globally averaged solar and wind power is small. On the other
hand, local variation of solar and wind power can be quite large owing to weather changes. Figure 1 shows
the global mean of the relative error (RMS error/mean value) of solar power forecasts as a function of fore-
cast length. For a 24-h forecast of a 3-h mean, the relative error is about 30%, and for a prediction of the
daily mean, about 15%. These relatively large errors are mainly due to inability of current models for pre-
dicting clouds accurately. For a 24-h forecast of a 3-h mean, the relative error of wind power forecasts is
about 70%, and for a prediction of the daily mean, about 35% [Liu et al., 2009]. Wind prediction errors
are due to the extreme temporal variability of wind speed and the inability of models to capture such
ne-scale structure. The forecasting accuracy for solar and wind energy will be improved as weather fore-
casting is improved. Over the last three decades, the accuracy of NWP forecasts has improved at a rate
of about 1 day/decade, i.e., todays 5-day forecasts are as reliable as 2-day forecasts were 30 years ago
[Richardson, 2000]. Further gains are anticipated with better physical models, more powerful computers,
and better observations, especially from space.
5. Electric Car
The electric car was a popular car in the early twentieth century and declined in the market after World
War I because of massive discoveries of crude oil and cheap gasoline. After 100 years, the electric car is
coming back into the market. Today we are facing depletion of crude oil supplies and increasing CO
2
in the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning. Total CO
2
emission from fossil fuel burning reached 28 billion
metric tons in 2005, and the emission has resulted in the increase of CO
2
concentration from 280 to 396
ppmv in the atmosphere. As a result of rising prices of gasoline and concern about climate change all
over the world, more and more people are starting to look for alternatives, such as the electric hybrid car
and pure electric car. A 100% Electric Zero Emissions Vehicle (EZEV) was exhibited for sale at Baltimore
harbor, Maryland. Many people stopped and were attracted by the advertisement on its windows: a 100
mile (160 km; 1 mile 1.6 km) range at a speed up to 70 mile per hour and a cost of 70 cents for driving
LIU 2013 The Authors. 10
EarthsFuture 10.1002/2013EF000206
Figure 2. Decadal trends in surface wind power (black line) and surface
temperature (dashed red line).
100 miles in comparison to $14 (4 gallons
of gasoline to drive the same 100 miles)
for a car using gasoline. The technology
for the electric car is feasible and accept-
able: 8 years or 100,000 mile warranty and
$15,000 for a brand new electric car after
federal tax credit of up to $7,500.
Although the electric car is promising,
its benet may be exaggerated. Sev-
enty cents for driving 100 miles may be
an extremely cheap rate, but it cannot
be sustainable when more electric cars
are charged at night time. It is better to
say how much electricity is needed for
driving 100 miles. According to the features and specication of the manufacturer, 24 kWh of electricity is
needed for driving 100 miles for a THINK City or a Nissan LEAF. According to the utility bill for residents in
Maryland, 24 kWh of electricity costs about $3 instead of 70 cents in the advertisement mentioned above,
thereby taking into account the cost for electricity generation and grid transport. Thus, zero emission is
not true right now. Producing 24 kWh of electricity will consume about one and a quarter gallons of gaso-
line. Therefore, the equivalent eciency for the pure electric car is about 90 miles per gallon, which is
higher than any other car including hybrid cars.
6. Acquiring Solar and Wind Resource
With advanced Google map technology, one can easily acquire from http://www.renewableenergyst.org
the amount of solar and wind energy available at any location or area in the world. On the solar energy
page, the map in the upper-left corner provides a simple interface. One can either roam to a location,
type in a location name, or type in an address and then use the zooming and drawing buttons to draw
an area on the map. The total solar radiation available for power generation in that area will be shown. By
multiplying a conversion factor, typically between 0.1 and 0.2, one can gure out how much solar power
one may get using a solar power device. If a user types in his/her own home address, zooms in to his/her
backyard, draws an area in the backyard, and provides a conversion factor value (e.g., 0.15), the user will
nd out how many kilowatt hours of electricity can be generated from a region in the backyard.
Similarly, one can also nd from the wind power page the amount of wind energy for any location in the
world. Total available wind energy also depends on several additional parameters, including the rotors
diameter, the number of rotors to install, and the height of each rotor. The number of rotors is estimated
from the size of the area and each rotors diameter. By multiplying an eciency factor, typically between
0.15 and 0.40 (default value 0.2), a user can gure out how much wind power can be obtained from wind
turbines. Wind energy increases rapidly with height for a constant ux layer. We use a power law to calcu-
late wind speed at a given height from an available wind speed beneath the height. The power law may
be applicable below 100 m, but a dierent parameter value in the power law may be needed when the
height is above 100 m. Thus, it is possible to get much more energy by setting a wind turbine at a higher
altitude. For instance, wind energy density is doubled when a wind turbine is moved from 10 to 50 m
above the surface.
7. Discussion
Renewable, sustainable, and clean solar and wind energy resources are much larger than the worlds
energy demand. Solar energy from just 1% of the land area in the United States can meet the whole
nations energy needs. Large wind energy resources are located over the oceans and near coasts. Wind
power plants can be constructed along coastal areas where energy demands are high. In addition, there
are many inland sites with great potential for wind energy applications. Air pollution is a big issue in the
cities for developing countries. City pollution is mainly caused by vehicle emissions. We can have zero
emissions if we use electric vehicles derived by solar and wind energy. Using electric cars should not hurt
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EarthsFuture 10.1002/2013EF000206
Figure 3. A geographic distribution of decadal surface downward solar radiation change in the past 50 years. The value is the
decadal mean over a period from 1999 to 2008 minus the decadal mean over a period from 1949 to 1958.
economy. Oppositely, the business of electric cars can create a lot of jobs in the areas of new electricity
charge station construction and operation, battery production, renewable energy, new car design, and
production. Electric cars and vehicles have low emissions (zero emission by using renewable energy)
and can become integral parts of a smart grid, where they do not just consume power but also provide
mobile storage of energy. Electromobilitys greatest potential for climate protection is the interaction of
renewable energies and with sustainable mobility. Many countries are supporting and working on elec-
tromobility. A million electric vehicles are expected to be on the road in the United States by 2015. With
government investment exceeding $140 billion, the United States is hoping that this business can bring
millions of jobs and also dramatically reduce CO
2
emission.
Environment, climate, and electronic vehicle powered by solar and wind energy could inuence each
other. Using the renewable energy can ease pollution and reduce CO
2
emission. On the other hand,
climate change will aect solar and wind energy distribution in the future because solar and wind energy
depends on weather conditions. To obtain an estimate of the magnitude of these eects, we analyzed
65 years (19482012) of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data [Kistler et al., 2001]. Surface wind power exhibits
a signicant positive trend with global warming as shown in Figure 2. The correlation coecient between
the surface wind power and temperature is 0.82. We computed a decadal mean global map of wind
energy for the period 19491958 and for the period 19992008, and then determined the dierence
between the two. It was found, for example, that most of Asia had experienced a decrease in surface wind
energy although wind energy over oceans increases signicantly [Weng et al., 2012]. We found no signi-
cant trend in downward solar radiation at the surface in the data set. However, we do see a distinguished
pattern change in solar radiation. Figure 3 shows the global distribution of downward solar radiation at
the surface. We computed a decadal mean global map of solar energy for the period 19491958 and
for the period 19992008, and then determined the dierence between the two. It can be seen that
solar energy at the surface over the United States decreases. It may imply that climate change may aect
the downward solar radiation at the surface. Decisions about renewable energy developments need to
consider such climate change scenarios.
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Earths Future 10.1002/2013EF000206
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Acknowledgments
The Author thanks the National Cen-
ters for Environment Prediction of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration to provide downward
solar radiation uxes and meteorolog-
ical data for calculating wind power.
The author appreciates the great sup-
port from Google map.
LIU 2013 The Authors. 13