Engineering360: "London Moving to Zero-Emission Buses"

The Zero emission cars/buses are great where they are located. But how much is the cost of producing hydrogen? And the electric cars- they need electric outlets for re-charging. All have increasing demands for power which are being provided by power plants. So we need more power plants? We might just be transferring sources of carbon footprints. Why not point our effort in improving the internal combustion engines? The hybrid vehicles are great, why not improve on them?

This is a great initiative. It is also heartening to hear that many cities across globe are also considering similar measures.

However, I feel we need to have a transparent calculation of the

1. Cost involved for this vis-a-vis clean diesel.

2. What would be the ROI for this project for different countries with different economies?

3. The Law of Conservation is Universal - conservation of energy, mass, momentum. The same is applicable for emission. The power for these buses are going to be from electricity. Hence the power plants need to produce more power; with associated transmission losses what is the real power ( energy) requirement, how much fuel addition is required, vis-a-vis reduction in emission from non usage of diesel.

These data with calculations, if put in public domain, would be a great driver for this project.

As minio and R.Gopalakrishnan have correctly stated there are statements within that are a little cavalier with the phrase "Zero-Emission Buses" and the use of /lack of supporting facts.

Whilst they are perfectly correct a glaring point that seems to be missed is the blindingly obvious....the mines, the drill rigs, the refineries...steel, alumina, silica, carbon, oil......

In essence the buses may (?) be zero emissions, in and of themselves, but how do you get the busses and make them run?

Until that is answered the story is pollution at best, deliberate political misinformation at worst.