Someone left this note on my Nissan LEAF.

Sometimes when you do the right thing — like power an electric car with sunshine, something I’ve been doing for about 10 months — you get recognition for doing so.

The handwritten note in the picture to the right was placed on the windshield of my 2014 Nissan LEAF this morning. My LEAF has the vanity plate, ‘SOLPWRD’. Here’s what the note says –>

‘SOLPWRD — I love your car + that it’s solar powered! Inspirational! I want one!’

Yup, this little gesture of kindness, definitely made my day :-).

Anyone else out there have stories similar to this one? If so, please share them in the comments field below.

Related articles–>

• Running our electric car on sun in Colorado
• Home solar PV + EV = solar-charged driving
• Going solar photo gallery 
• Home solar is so much sexier with an EV

The Nissan LEAF has between 70 and 100 miles of range, depending on weather conditions, speed, etc.

I did not plan on having an all-electric Nissan LEAF as my ONLY car. But that’s the situation I’ve got now — and had for the past four months thanks to a marriage separation that happened in the beginning of August.

(I apologize for the caps on “ONLY” — sort of. I bet 90 percent, maybe even 95 percent of LEAF owners have a second gas/EREV/PHEV car as their long-distance vehicle, meaning my situation is highly unusual. Note to Nissan: You should keep track of stats on who’s driving a LEAF as a second car, or an only car.)

My wife took our lone gas car, a 2014 Subaru Forester, with her back in August, and I have our 2014 Nissan LEAF, which I’ve been leasing since March.

No doubt, for most people, including me, having a second gas car in the household, or better yet, an EREV such as a Volt (having one BEV and one EREV, both fueled by home solar generated electricity was my dream, but not my wife’s) is a preferable situation to trying to go solely with a full electric vehicle — unless you’ve got the money for a Tesla Model S.

I’ve got two kids that need to be hauled around — a lot. Soccer practice here, choir there, German lessons here, doctor appointment over there, and, of course, mom and dad now live 10 miles apart. As a result of the separation, I’m driving more miles per day, usually 50 to 60 miles, but sometimes up to 130 miles a day (actually, this puts me in jeaporady of seriously over-running my 24,000 mile, two-year limit on my LEAF lease).

That’s the background — an impending divorce forces dad into a situation in which a BEV is his only car. Here are some thoughts/reflections about what it’s like to have an all-electric Nissan as one’s lone household car:

1. The LEAF meets 90 percent of my driving needs. EV advocates are fond of noting that a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) such as a Nissan LEAF with a range of about 70 (in the Colorado winter) to 100 miles (in the Colorado summer) meets the needs of most driving situations for most Americans most of the time. That’s absolutely true in my case: I’ve rarely needed to go more than the LEAF range, and/or I’ve been able to plug in to add to the LEAF’s one-time range — most of the time.

2. The LEAF does NOT meet 10 percent of my driving needs. Hiking and camping in the Colorado mountains is one of my favorite things to do. The LEAF simply is not equipped to get me to where I want to get, which is typically along Route 285 west of Denver. I once tried to make it to a state park (Staunton State Park) from my house in Aurora. The round trip was 85 miles. I didn’t make it. I turned around about 10 miles into the mountains when I saw that my range was plummeting while driving up what is a very steep up-mountain grade. Sadly, there is not a single EV charging station from the beginning of the foothills to Stanton State Park along Route 285, a major thoroughfare into the Colorado mountains (note to Chargepoint and other charging station companies: How about thinking about how you could place chargers to get BEVs from point A to point B, especially in the mountains, rather than seemingly placing the stations almost exclusively in sometimes rather random places in urban areas). I ended up hiking at Red Rocks Park instead, which is right at the beginning of the foothills (beginning of the mountains) here in the Denver area. But check mark against the LEAF: Does not cut it in terms of getting me to the Colorado mountains and back.

Yes, 70 to 100 miles of range is enough for 90 percent of driving for most people. But it’s the other 10 percent that matters — a lot. So, I don’t blame people if they make a car buying decision based on the 10 percent rather than on the 90 percent in terms of their driving needs.

3. The LEAF’s insufficient range has negatively affected my quality of life. With the LEAF as my ONLY vehicle, I cannot easily get to the mountains and back here in Colorado. Yet I love to hike, camp, etc. Yes, I could rent a vehicle, but that’s an extra cost I’m reluctant to spend given a very tight budget (that’s what happens when divorce halves your family income). It’s also inconvenient to rent a car, an extra thing to do, an extra thing to plan for. I looked into car sharing, but it’s not a practical option for a trip of 150 to 200 miles round trip. I could buy a gas clunker just for weekend trips, but, that, too, is an added expense, one I cannot really afford. Because I leased my LEAF, I cannot practically trade it in either. Even if I could, like most LEAF owners, I do NOT want to go back to gas. A Volt would have been a perfect car for me — had I known in February that my wife was going to move out in August, but of course I didn’t know. Also, my kids hated the back seat of the Volt — it’s just too small!

4. Despite EV advocates’ talk, the truth is the LEAF doesn’t cut it for quite a few (many?). Yes, 70 to 100 miles of range is enough for 90 percent of driving for most people. But it’s the other 10 percent that matters — a lot. So, I don’t blame people if they make a car buying decision based on the 10 percent rather than on the 90 percent in terms of their driving needs. In fact, the majority, probably the vast majority of LEAF (and iMiEV, and i3, and Ford Focus Electric, etc.) owners, ALSO essentially make their household car buying decisions based on this same reasoning — 10 percent of my driving needs do matter, and I gotta cover these needs because, other than possibly a Tesla Model S, a BEV isn’t going to cover those needs. Otherwise, why would so many die-hard BEV advocates have an additional gas car to back up their LEAF, iMiEV, etc.?

This all might seem ridiculously obvious, but now that I’ve experienced, first hand, what it’s like to be in a single car BEV household, I’ve come to the conclusion that some EV advocates need to lighten up some — and be a bit more specific — when arguing that BEVs work for most people. This is how the argument in favor of BEVs should be worded, every time: “A LEAF, or other BEV, will cover 90 percent of most people’s driving needs. BUT the other 10 percent still matters. Therefore, while I’m advocating you buy a BEV, you’re most likely going to need another car too.” Finally, I have to confess that it really irritates me that so many EV advocates seem to assume that everyone either has, or can can afford to have, two cars. Not true.

5. Range anxiety is real — and it does matter! It sometimes seems to me that some BEV advocates are rather paternalistic, condescending, etc. in terms of the notion of range anxiety. They “pooh pooh” it, or imply it’s silly, something only “those” who don’t know anything (about electric cars) feel. Or, differently put, the BEV advocate is smarter than everyone else because he/she “gets it”: range anxiety is (allegedly) ridiculous. No, range anxiety isn’t ridiculous, it’s real, very real. Because the LEAF is my only car, I’ve had no choice other than to run it to zero bars (nearly all the way to empty) on numerous occasions. In fact, I’ve even seen the little yellow turtle pop up on the dashboard display on two nerve-wracking occasions, both in cold weather, both at night, and both with my two daughters in the car. That made me anxious, and I’ve thought I might be putting our lives in jeapordy a couple of times when I’ve had to take a left turn into our housing complex in front of three lanes of oncoming traffic speeding towards me at 60 m.p.h., turtle on the screen. Yes, range anxiety is real, and I’ve felt it several times. However I do not blame BEVs or Nissan for range anxiety.

Even though the LEAF is not entirely practical for me now that I’m at the head of a one-car, three-person family 50 percent of the time (I split custody of the kids evenly with my wife), I really love my LEAF and driving electric, and, of course, fueling my LEAF 100 percent with sunshine.

6. The LEAF doesn’t have a range problem. It might seem contradictory that after I’ve devoted a lot of space above to underscoring how the LEAF isn’t really working for me as an ONLY family car in many ways, that I would lead this last section by claiming that the LEAF doesn’t have a range problem. But, in fact, this is true. The problem is not the LEAF’s 70 to 100 mile range, the REAL problem is a lack of EV charging infrastructure. If I knew I could find a charging station at every convenience store — or, fancy this, every gas station — in America, if the grocery store, Target, my workplace, the bank, your kids’ school, public, state, and national parks, etc., all had EV charging stations — 70 to 100 miles would be good enough, at least for me. I could make it Staunton Park, for example, plug in when I got there, do a four-hour hike, and have a full charge to drive back home.

I could plug in for 20 to 60 minutes intervals while shopping. I could plug in for 120 minutes at my kids’ soccer games. I could plug in for eight hours while at work. If I could do this, I would never have a range problem. The only real problem would be long trips, say driving to Yellowstone from Denver, which is about a 700 mile trip. And even that wouldn’t be a “problem” with 20- to 30-minute quick charging stations everywhere. However, righ now there are NOT enough charging stations to do what I’m describing. Not even close, at least not here in Colorado. Yes, things could be worse than they are, and I’m grateful for the charging stations that are in place. But. There. Are. Not. Enough. Charging Stations. Period!

7. Despite drawbacks of LEAF as ONLY car, I love my LEAF. Even though the LEAF is not entirely practical for me now that I’m at the head of a one-car, three-person family 50 percent of the time (I split custody of the kids evenly with my wife), I really love my LEAF and driving electric, and, of course, fueling my LEAF 100 percent with sunshine.

I do wish I’d leased a Volt back in February. But only in some ways — mostly when I think about not being able to get to the mountains and back in my LEAF (my wife has not proved very receptive to me switching out cars for those purposes). I’m proud of the fact that 100 percent of my 11,000 miles the past 10 months have been fully electric and that 98 percent of those miles have been powered by the 5.6 kW solar system on my home’s rooftop.

I’m definitely never going back to full gas again — EVER! (Take that Big Oil, OPEC & ISIS!)

If the rumors that the next generation LEAF will have 180 to 200 miles of true range (by true range, I mean 180 to 200 miles at 65 m.p.h. in twenty-degree  weather), it’s going to be a hard decision for me to make when my two-year lease on the 2014 LEAF ends in February 2016: Get a Volt (assuming the 2017 has more backseat room), or stick with a LEAF. I do know this: If the Colorado EV charging infrastructure is sufficiently robust in February 2016 — not a sure thing at all — I would not hesitate in sticking with a LEAF with 180 to 200 miles of real-world range, even though this all-electric car, as it is now, would continue to be my household’s only car.

Related articles–>

• Support electric cars? Don’t buy a Toyota
• Ten things I love about our solar-charged Nissan LEAF
• Running our electric car on sun in Colorado
• Are squirrels a serious threat to your solar system

Driving a solar-charged electric car means you save money — and it’s also patriotic. After all, you’re fueling your car with 100 percent domestic solar sunshine generated electricity.

Would you like to drive for free?

I bet you would. And I bet you’re not coming anywhere close, unless you don’t drive but walk, bike, or take public transportation, or a combination thereof, and/or you subscribe to some sort of car sharing plan — all of which I strongly support.

I’m not driving my 2014 Nissan LEAF SV for free, but I’m coming pretty close by taking advantage of what I will call the EV + PV Free Ride.

Across my two-year lease (which includes 12,000 miles per year), I will pay a total of $10,000 to Nissan to drive my LEAF. But that’s not what my out-of-pocket costs will actually amount to. They will be half that.

In 14 months with my LEAF, thanks to my 5.6 kW home solar system (installed in June 2010), which has cranked out enough electricity to power both my home and my LEAF 100 percent for the past 14 months, I haven’t paid at all for gasoline, thereby saving about $2,000 — I say about because the price of gasoline has fluctuated so much in the past five months, it’s hard to say for sure (BTW, I’m glad I don’t have to think at all about roller-coaster gas prices).

I will be getting a $3,000 State of Colorado EV tax rebate as well. Doing the math, $10,000 – $5,000 = $5,000. That’s right, just $5,000 to drive a brand new, all-electric, 100 percent home solar-charged Nissan LEAF and drive it for two years.

You couldn’t buy a reliable used car and pay just $5,000 to drive it for two years. In fact, I’d say you’re looking at at least $8,000 to buy, maintain, and fuel a reliable used car across two years in the Denver, Colorado area.

[Yes, I did have to pay $8,500 for my 5.6 kW home solar system; however, after just five years, my system has already paid itself off, thanks in part to EV + PV].

So much for the myth that electric cars are “too expensive”, eh?

As for the inevitable argument that I’m driving at “the taxpayers’ expense”, I don’t buy that bogus claim for a second.

Those people can talk to me about true cost economics, according to which so-called “externalities” such as pollution caused on the back end of things, such as burning fossil fuels, MUST be paid for one way or another.

The same people spewing this critique are, more often than not, the same folks driving gas guzzling, air pollution spewing cars and light trucks that cause costly health damage — to your lungs, to mine, and to theirs, and who are contributing to the insane costs of CO2 buildup in the global atmosphere.

Those people can talk to me about true cost economics, according to which so-called “externalities” such as pollution caused on the back end of things, such as burning fossil fuels, MUST be paid for one way or another.

And the rabid “anti-subsidy” crowd (who typically say nothing about subsidies for fossil fuels) can agree to a carbon tax — which would raise the cost of gasoline substantially, to what it should cost. Then, maybe, I’ll talk to them about “unfair” subsidies for electric cars and for “rich” (last time I checked 65k per year doesn’t make me, or anyone, “rich”) people like me.

You gotta love driving EV + PV for free, or something pretty damn close to it. It’s fun, it’s clean, it’s freedom! And it gets exactly the right people, people who, in theory, should be very much for EV + PV Freedom, frothing at the mouth.

What more could you ask for?

Related articles–>

• Ten things Nissan should change about the LEAF
• Ten things I love about my Nissan LEAF
• Five reasons to lease, rather than buy an electric car
• Why are some libertarians so anti-EV + PV?
  

Yes, I know, the headline for this entry is pretty charged, and, I will say, right up front, I don’t think solar-charged driving is a lie.

However I do concede that after more than five years of promoting solar-charged driving on this web site and more than one year of doing EV + PV myself, I still feel uncomfortable with the fact that most of my “solar-charged” driving is in fact, technically speaking, “solar-offset-charged” driving.

That is, I charge my 2014 Nissan LEAF mostly at night, when the sun isn’t shining, though, on weekends I try to make a point of plugging my EV in as much as I can during the day.

My 5.6 kW home solar system produces enough electricity to cover 100 percent of my home electric use AND 15,000 miles worth of driving in my Nissan LEAF annually. So, when you total up my electricity usage vs. solar electricity production at the end of each year they zero out (in fact, annually, I tend to produce more electricity than I consume via my home and my car).

That’s what I mean by “solar-offset-charged” driving: During the course of a year, I produce enough solar electricity with my 5.6 kW home solar system to offset the electricity I use. In the case of my 2014 LEAF, roughtly 75 to 80 percent of my solar-charging is “solar-offset charging.”

Outside of “solar heads” and “EV heads”, few people are aware enough to call me, or anyone else, out on “solar-offset-charged driving” as opposed to pure, direct, solar-charged driving.

Technically, my critics are correct: Most of the electricity powering my Nissan LEAF has NOT been produced directly by my home solar system. Instead, the electricity in my car’s battery is typically produced mostly by a mix of the buring of coal and natural gas and by wind power here in Colorado Xcel Utility territory.

Geting called out
But a few are aware enough and I have been called out a few times during the comment wars that I sometimes (too often, actually) get into underneath online articles about electric cars, home solar, gasoline cars, the environment, global warming, etc.

I have to admit, I feel a bit sheepish about “solar-offset-charged” driving. Technically, my critics are correct: Most of the electricity powering my Nissan LEAF has NOT been produced directly by my home solar system. Instead, the electricity in my car’s battery is typically produced mostly by a mix of the buring of coal and natural gas and by wind power here in Colorado Xcel Utility territory.

On the other hand, annually, via my 5.6 kW home solar system, I AM producing as much electricity as I consume every year.

This has to be better — A LOT better — environmentally speaking than: a) driving a gasoline stinker powered by refined oil that comes from as far away as Saudi Arabia and the Canadian Tar Sands; b) simply plugging in an EV where I live and adding NO home solar at all to offset the electricity I consume.

Take a solar-offset should not count argument to the extreme and you potentially verge on getting to the absurd perspective that would hold that solar is “useless” for a home because, a lot of the time, your dryer, your blow dryer, your dishwasher, your refrigerator, your four giant 56-inch flat screen TVs, your central AC system, are very often being used at night, when the sun isn’t shining.

My car is 100 percent electric — but it’s not, technically speaking, powered directly by 100 percent solar-generated electricity. But then again, neither is my refrigerator, although both my 5.6 kW home solar system makes enough electricity each year to offset their electricity consumption. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

This is an extreme perspective, I know — but I’ve encountered it in a few of the hundreds (thousands?) of comment wars I’ve gotten into online about electric cars, solar, etc. during the past five years.

Another reason solar-offset-charging should “count”: If EVERY single car in metro-Denver was an electric car and we in the Denver area had enough solar production to offset, 100 percent, the electricity consumption of our completely electric car fleet, the air here would be a hell of a lot cleaner. In fact, there would be essentially NO Denver brown cloud. That matters — a lot. Add 100 percent wind power at night and you achieve zero air pollution.

SOLPWRD: My personalized license plate
Of course, that’s not the scenario here in Denver now. Yet I’m driving around with a personalized plate that says “SOLPWRD” and with bumper stickers that state “Powered with 100% Domestically Produced Solar Energy” and “Zero Air Pollution.”

I will say that I can’t wait until I can add a home battery pack to my solar fueling set-up. The primary reason for this is so that I will be able to claim total “purity” on a solar-charged electric car. A second reason is to stick it to Xcel and other utilities who are trying to smear home solar owners with unfair, and completely unsubstantiated, claims that we are allegedly not “paying our fair share” for the grid.

So, am I “lying” when I say my 2014 Nissan LEAF is “solar-charged”? Am I “scamming” others with my license plate, bumper stickers, and even this entire web site?

What do you think?

I’d love to hear your answers/thoughts in the comments field below.

Related articles–>

• Is using solar-offset to “charge” an electric car cheating?
• 100 percent solar — and still caught in the trap of dirty coal
• 10 things I love about my 2014 solar-charged Nissan LEAF
• A Nissan LEAF — mine — runs completely out of charge

Yes! I am SOOOO stoked: Tesla announced yesterday that “Tesla Energy” will be producing home battery packs called “Powerwalls.”

The Powerwall will allow people like me — I’ve got a 5.6 kW solar system on my home’s roof — to store the solar energy I produce during the day and then use it at night to do things like, hmmm…, I don’t know — maybe charge my all-electric Nissan LEAF with pure solar generated electricity!!!

That. Is. Freaking. Awesome.

Truly. Is.

And, get this: These “Powerwall” thingies — a great name for a home battery pack, BTW — are going to be affordable (unlike the Tesla cars, one of which I’d SOOO love to have, but simply cannot afford). Tesla will be offering a 10 kWh Powerwall for $3,500 and 7 kWh version for $3,000.

Okay, so 10 kWh isn’t huge, but it’s enough for me to get an excellent start on my end goal: Total and complete #GridDefection.

My LEAF has a 24 kWh pack, but most of the time, I’m adding between 4 and 10 kWh of charge to the battery per day. And I use very little electricity at home otherwise, being the energy miser I am.

I could add a second 10 kWh Powerwall, and be close to being able to unplug from the grid entirely here in Aurora, Colo. Add a third, and I’m definitely able to ditch — for eternity — BIG UTILITY MONOPOLY, which I detest only slightly less than Big Oil, which, BTW, hasn’t gotten a penny from me for 15 months and 16,000 miles of solar-charged driving.

Yes, things are looking up, yes, indeed — for fueling independence hungry folks such as myself, and, I’m guessing, many of the people who land on the pages of SolarChargedDriving.Com.

Goodbye Big Oil. Goodbye Big Utility Monopoly. Goodbye Dirty Energy On The Grid: Hello, Tesla Energy Powerwall.

Yes, solar can, and DOES, replace oil, despite what the so-called “expert” energy analysts claim — which is that solar is not in direct competition with oil.

The video above, which I produced today (June 27, 2015), illustrates that solar does indeed replace oil!

I’ve been using solar energy to replace oil for 18 months now in my 2014 Nissan LEAF. It’s been 100 percent powered with home solar generated electricity and so-called solar-offset generated electricity.

My 5.6 kW home solar system serves as my solar “gas” station. I haven’t pumped gas for any reason for 11 months (I rented a car on vacation in California in July 2014). This is great — because I HATE PUMPING GAS!

Don’t you?

Gas smells
Gas smells, you often have to pump in horrible weather (wind-driven snow in temps below zero is my ‘favorite’ gas pumping time), and a ream of scientific studies show that gas handles have more germs on them than any other public item!

Equally satisfiying, Big Oil hasn’t got a penny from me in almost a year, neither has OPEC — or ISIS, for that matter!

I’ve driven 18,000 Sun Miles® — miles driven by an electric vehicle (EV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) whose batteries have been charged using solar energy and/or using electricity from kWh credits amassed via solar offset generation — and saved thousands of dollars in gasoline costs.

Equally satisfiying, Big Oil hasn’t got a penny from me in almost a year, neither has OPEC — or ISIS, for that matter!

None of my fueling money has gone to the Dirty Tar Sands in Canada, or equally filthy tar sands operations here in the U.S., none of it has gone to fracking for oil in North Dakota, etc.

My hands are nearly 100 percent clean of the multiple rail car tanker explosions that have occurred in 2014 and 2015 (in buying goods, food, etc., I am responsible for some oil consumption; however, 90 percent of our oil consumption is through our own individual driving).

Zero emissions
I haven’t belched any pollutants from my car into anyone’s lungs — young childrens’ or old folks’ — in 18 months, I’ve radically cut my carbon footprint, and, best of all, I’m enjoying 100 percent domestic solar electricity production as my car’s fuel source, all of it generated directly on my home’s rooftop.

That means I’m experiencing near 100 percent fueling independence. Independence of any kind feels great, and dependence (actually, it’s really addiction) of any kind, in particular to oil, doesn’t feel good at all. In fact, it feels downright dirty.

So, there you have it: Leave gas behind and plug into solar-charged driving today. You won’t regret it.

It’s not only possible, it simply rocks — just like the video I put together today and embedded at the top of this post does

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Christof Demont-Heinrich
Editor & Founder SolarChargedDriving.Com (Since 2009!)

Related articles–>

• EV range isn’t the problem, charging infrastructure is
• A Nissan LEAF — mine — runs completely out of charge
• Ten things I love about our Nissan LEAF
• Running our electric car on sun in Colorado

Sights like this one, near Sondershausen, Germany, where wind turbines and solar farms are located together, are common in Germany. But, sadly, electric cars, which could be plugged into a renewable energy charged grid, are uncommon. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

I just finished a fantastic four-week vacation with my two wonderful — bilingual — daughters in Deutschland. We drove 2,000 kilometers during that time and visited big cities such as Hamburg, Berlin and Stuttgart, mid-size cites such as Augsburg and Ulm, and small towns such as Nordhausen and Sondershausen.

Across four weeks and 2,000 kilometers of driving — in a gas-powered rental Ford Fiesta, by the way :-(, we saw just 10 electric cars. One of these was the BMW i3 my second cousin in Nordhausen owns (the others: 5 Teslas, 2 additional i3s, 1 Nissan LEAF, and 1 Opel Ampera, known in the U.S. as a Chevy Volt).

I regularly see a lot more electric cars driving here in Colorado — which is only a bit smaller than Germany, but which has 15 times fewer people — than in the land of beer, sausage, and fast cars.

Renewable energy everywhere
Meanwhile, I was totally stoked by all of the renewable energy I saw: Wind farms, solar farms, and, in case, after case, after case, wind farms + solar farms in the same place. This is something I’ve never seen in the United States, though I know that in California at least, there are some instances where wind turbines and solar farms have been placed together.

Solar rooftops — a TON of them — are everywhere in Germany, way, way, way, way more common than here in Colorado, as well.

Sadly there were virtually no electric cars to plug into an increasingly renewable energy powered grid — for a short time on a late July day when we were in Germany, the country hit 75 percent of electricity produced by renewable sources.

Why so few electric cars in the land of renewable energy?

First, the German government doesn’t offer any real financial incentives for electric car buyers [there are indirect incentives, such as special access to certain driving lanes, etc.].

Second, German car culture, or what might be more aptly described as the ‘Autobahn Culture’, is standing in the way of EV adoption in Deutschland.

This BMW i3, plugged into a charging station in Nordhausen, Germany, is the only one of its kind in that city of 50,000 says my cousin, who owns this i3. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

Everything else is second class, less than, etc.

These car makes — BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW and Porsche — were inevitably the makes I saw being driven at 200 km/h, or more, in the left lane of the Autobahn. All of these car makes are, of course, G-E-R-M-A-N.

In other words, there is an ingrained nationalism that strongly favors fast German gasoline cars underlying the Autobahn Culture in Germany. This is making it VERY difficult for electric cars to take hold in Deutschland.

Tesla in Germany
Obviously, Tesla makes some damn fast cars. In theory, Teslas should be very attractive to Germans given their thirst for speed.

But Tesla is an American auto maker, not a German one.

The P85D can beat virtually all of the BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, VWs and even Porsches that chased me out of the left lane on the Autobahn at my “lame” speed of 130 km/h (81 mph) — loligagging in the left lane of the Autobahn is TOTAL VERBOTEN (not to mention just plain dangerous) — in a 0  to 100 km/h race.

BUT that’s not what counts in Autobahn culture.

[Famous for its speed limit free Autobahns, in fact, Germany is VERY strict about speed limits on other roads, especially in towns and cities. Furthermore, much of the Autobahn is regulated by speed limits as well.]

What matters is how smoothly and quickly you can rush from at 140 to 220 km/h. In this department, Teslas don’t hold any significant advantage over the BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, VWs, and Porsches you see racing at crazy speeds on the Autobahn.

The BMW i3 is quick — I drove my second cousin’s i3 in Nordhausen — he told me it’s the ONLY i3 in the city of 50,000. It’s also a BMW. But it doesn’t have the prestige of a BMW 5 or 7 series.

Given Germany’s cultural fixation with fast German gasoline cars, I don’t think the i3 has much of a chance of supplanting its ICE counterparts in at the heart of German Autobahn Culture anytime soon.

My daughters and I stayed at this farm in Sondershausen, Germany. As you can see, the ENTIRE roof is covered by solar panels. This is a COMMON sight in Germany. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

Life circumstances are forcing me to sell our home, give up solar-charged driving, and, potentially, unplug from electric driving altogether.

When I launched SolarChargedDriving.Com in September of 2009 exactly six years ago, I was 100 percent stoked about solar-charged driving, or the fact that you could fuel an electric car with solar panels installed on the roof of your home.

I still strongly believe that electric cars fueled by electricity produced by renewable energy are crucial to cleaning up our air and scaling back human caused environmental damage, but a lot of the luster of solar-charged driving has faded for me.

Extreme personal life challenges over the past two years stand as the biggest reason solar-charged driving has lost much of its appeal.

Divorce & family break-up
The excitement of driving one’s car on sunshine — and the relative importance of doing so — pale in the face of a divorce and a family break-up that has torn apart my family of four, and was a huge contributing factor in a year-long spiral into depression and generalized anxiety disorder that derailed — mid-way through — my dream of spending a full year in Germany with my family back in December 2013.

There is also the raw disappointment that my now ex-wife clearly never shared my excitement for renewable energy or solar-charged driving (nor did she share my excitement with multilingualism and raising our kids as German-English bilinguals). After 17 years of marriage, and two kids, now 10 and 9 years old, my divorce became official on a surreal mid-July 2015 day at the very same courthouse in which the James Holmes/Aurora Theater Shooter trial was taking place.

In fact, back in 2009, my wife was squarely against putting a 5.6 kW solar system on our Aurora, Colo. rooftop, arguing it would be too expensive, and that we couldn’t afford it.

No matter that, in the long run, home solar systems — especially those placed on a south facing roof like ours in sunny, high-altitude Colorado, always save money. It was — as it is with 99 percent of people — the idea of paying one’s electricity bill forward that scared my wife.

Solar saves money
If you count the gas cost savings of the Nissan LEAF I leased in February 2014 and which I have now driven almost 20,000 miles, we have already broken even on the 5.6 kW system we installed at an unheard of $1.47 per watt out-of-pocket cost for us, or $8,000 for the system. That’s a price you could not get ANYWHERE in the United States today, 5 1/2 years later, because the solar incentives that were in place in Xcel Energy territory back in late 2009 are gone, gone, gone.

There is also the realization on my part — driven home by the loneliness of living in a single family house that, 50 percent of the time, has only yours truly occupying it — that the satisfaction of home solar fueling independence isn’t enough to carry one very far in life when big life pieces, in this case one’s own family, fall apart.

And there’s the reality of a divorce settlement that requires me to: a) buy my wife’s share of the house; b) OR sell our house, complete with it’s 5.6 kW home solar system, and split any profits with her.

In fact, I have recently come to the realization, that, psychologically, it is not good for me to stay in our house. So, sell, it appears it will be.

There’s also the reality of having a Nissan LEAF as my ONLY car (my wife took our gas car when she moved out in August 2014).

Our family, in front of a LEAF, during happier times.

LEAF doesn’t do long distances
The LEAF’s a great little car that gets me everywhere I need to go in everyday commuting/take-the-kids-to-soccer, etc. life. But it simply doesn’t have adequate range to get me to the Rocky Mountains and back home. And long-distance road trips are completely out — although I did borrow my brother’s Tesla P85 for a trip to Santa Fe recently.

There’s also the reality of having run out of charge in my LEAF, not once, but twice (both in the winter, by the way, and both when I was still trickle charging my LEAF).

I’ve got some “loud” bumper stickers on my LEAF, for example, “Zero Money to Big Oil” and “Zero Air Pollution”.

However, pretty soon I will almost certainly be landing for at least a year, if not longer, in an apartment somewhere in South Denver or Englewood, Colo.

There, I will be unable to continue practicing what I preach. There will be no solar, and no option for me to put solar up. Quite likely, I will be forced into trickle charging my LEAF, and will again be putting myself at risk of running out of charge.

Leaving solar-charged driving behind
Having to give up my solar-charged driving life — which has been a big part of my identity for the past six years — is a sobering, really, a depressing reality. One that’s taken significant sheen off of solar-charged driving for me — though I continue to hate Big Oil with a passion and am loathe to give it one penny of my money.

In sum, when I sell this house in which I have now lived for 10 years, or longer than in any other dwelling I have lived in my 48 years on earth, I will have to cope with the reality of having to plug my LEAF into coal, having to give up my fueling independence, and, perhaps most painfully, strip the bumper stickers off my LEAF, and, in February 2016, return the LEAF forever.

Having to give up my solar-charged driving life — which has been a big part of my identity for the past six years — is a sobering, really, a depressing reality.

I might end up in a Volt — although my two girls HATED the first generation Volt due to its very claustrophobic back seat area, complete with tiny windows that they said made them feel car sick. Worse, I might be forced into a gas stinker again. I know some people are “sick and tired” of hearing how Tesla’s are “too expensive” — but they are too expensive, at least for a single dad journalism professor who barely makes more than $60,000 per year. And the Model S is the ONLY all-electric car that will give me enough range to use as an ONLY car.

And, if I do buy a house again — housing prices near the University of Denver are quite high (for my sanity, I need to reduce my driving in the infamous Denver Tech Center I-25/I-225 intersection, I will be house poor, and it’s questionable whether I would be able to put solar, which is now MORE expensive, out of pocket, than when we bought in 2009, on a new house.

So, there you have it, solar-charged driving isn’t so exciting as it used to be for me. This is because I now realize that as much as I do not want to give up living the solar-charged dream, life circumstances are forcing me to do so.

I will soon have to strip several of the bumper stickers off my Nissan LEAF because, once I sell my home — which I must due to a recent divorce — I will be driving around in a car with misleading advertising. I will also have to give up my vanity plate, which will no longer be accurate.

Two Quebec companies, renewz inc. and Roulez Électrique have signed an agreement to install an iSun solar carport at the “Station Roulez Électrique” of Trois-Rivières in Quebec.

The companies say this facility will be the first of its kind in Quebec. The station aims to offer all the services surrounding the fueling of electric vehicles.

“This is an important moment for renewz,” said CEO and founder Sass M. Peress. “We have already installed several solar carports throughout the United States and Ontario. We had not yet had the chance to develop solar installation projects in Quebec.”

“With the signing of the agreement, renewz will now have a concrete example in Quebec of the marriage between distributed renewable energy and recharging of electric vehicles,” Peress added.

The station will have a laboratory that will assess stationary battery concepts.

“Our charging station will become a showcase for technologies related to electric cars and renewable energy,” said Sylvain Juteau, president of Roulez Électrique.  “It will also be a place of initiation and experimentation.”

The station will also be one of the first places in Quebec to have a Tesla Powerwall battery.  Solar panels mounted on the car port will act as a backup system in case of power failure in order to continue to recharge electric vehicles.

“Solar panels will demonstrate that there is no monopoly when it comes to electric cars,” said Juteau. “Motorists who choose the electric car will still be able to produce themselves at least part of the electricity needed to move their car.”

About renewz sustainable solutions inc.
renewz develops and delivers solar carport and EV mobility charging technologies. Based in Quebec and Florida, the renewz team provides clients with easy-to-implement renewable energy and electric mobility solutions to help increase environmental stewardship, together with reduced lifetime cost of operations, and superior financial returns. More information can be found at http://www.renewz.com/

It’s good to see a major solar company, in this case, SunRun, actively promoting the awesome synergy between home solar and electric cars!

SunRun lists four reasons to solar-charge:

1. Charge it for cheap

2. Fuel on your own terms

3. Cash in on incentives

4. Save on maintenance

They should also add: The self-satisfaction of fueling independence, which is typically the number one reason most solar-charged drivers cite for plugging an electric car into home solar.

Happy Sun Miles® everyone!

This is something I saw coming way back in the summer of 2009: Electric cars and solar would create a powerful and attractive synergy with one another. That is, those with solar would be more likely to buy electric cars, and those with electric cars more likely to buy solar.

New research by the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) confirms I was right seven years ago. According to SGCC, roughly one-half of consumers who have home solar or an electric vehicle have both.

SGCC surveyed 1,571 respondents on four distinct technologies and services: residential solar, community solar, green power plans, and electric vehicles. Through oversampling of adopters of residential solar PV and EV technologies, the study supports in-depth analysis of the motivations, concerns and experience of consumers who have recently made decisions regarding their purchase and use.

“By taking a deep dive into the perceptions of early solar and EV users, we are able to provide energy leaders with timely and critical data to help them envision and execute a modernized grid – one that is best able to implement clean, renewable energy for the 21st century,” said Patty Durand, President and CEO of SGCC.

Key findings from Consumer Drive Technologies indicate –>

• Consistent with previous research, consumer demographics and segmentation had a much stronger statistical association with interest in solar PV and electric vehicles than other potential influences.
• Fewer than 22 percent of all consumers claim to have a fairly complete understanding of solar PV or electric cars which is a barrier to engagement.
• Consumers are moving from a sole-ownership of solar PV and electric vehiclesd towards power purchase agreements (PPAs), leases, and shared ownership arrangements including community solar.
• Roughly one-half of consumers who have solar or EV technology have both. Similarly, consumers who are interested in one of those technologies have interest in the other.
• Consumers perceive the value of being connected to the grid and are willing to pay for it.
• Utilities have a role as an information provider and market booster, but less so as a provider of ancillary services for solar PV and EVs.

The synergy between home solar and electric cars confirmed by this study is great to see. But, of course, the reality is that while many electric car owners have home solar, and EVs are driving growth in solar — exactly as I predicted in 2009 — comparatively few people have an electric car, or home solar.

It’s time to change that, don’t you think? And get more Americans racking up as many Sun Miles® as possible!

The Giraffe 2.0 — which harnesses wind and solar power to charge your electric vehicle.

If solar-charging your EV isn’t clean or green enough for you, now you can add wind to the equation and simultaneously charge your electric car with sunshine and wind.

The Swedish firm InnoVentum has created the so-called Giraffe 2.0, a combined carport and charging station harvesting green energy from the wind and sun to power your e-vehicle.

The Giraffe 2.0 is made of renewable (wood) and recycled (metal) materials. The trees used for the structure have absorbed several tons of CO2 from the atmosphere before their wood takes the unique shape of a Giraffe – all this carbon dioxide is preserved within the structure for decades, making a positive contribution to the climate, claims InnoVentum.

To give you flexibility, Innoventum combines the Giraffe 2.0 power station with whichever EV-charger you prefer, making it possible to charge your e-car in just a couple of hours.

If you do not have an e-car, or a plug-in hybrid, you can connect the Giraffe 2.0 directly to the utility grid and power your house or install an off-grid Giraffe 2.0 where grid is not available.

According to InnoVentum, on average, the Giraffe 2.0 produces enough energy for a 225 km e-drive per day. Annually, it produces enough energy for you to drive twice around the world.

InnoVentum touts what it calls “power density for space efficiency” and claims its design doubles the power production footprint compared to solutions of the same size that rely only on sun, or only on wind.

As InnoVentum puts it, “With the Giraffe 2.0 you make an important step into the future – where focus on renewable materials and energy sources puts a natural end to CO2 emissions from careless use of our Planet’s mineral resources and fossil fuels.”

Indeed.

This Tesla Model X is fueled by sunshine, as indicated by its Colorado vanity plate.

I’ve got a Colorado vanity plate too that tells the world that my EV is fueled by 100 percent green, clean renewable energy.

I’ve been driving around in a 2014 Nissan LEAF with the vanity plate SOLPWRD — to signify the fact that my LEAF is fueled by sunshine — for a bit more than three years now (actually, technically my LEAF is now fueled by wind: I had to sell my house with 5.5 kW solar system last year due to divorce, and I now pay Xcel Energy two extra cents per kWh to subscribe to Xcel Windsource).

I’ve seen a bunch of other EV vanity plates on various LEAFs, Teslas, BMW i3s, Chevy Volts, etc. here in Colorado. But I don’t recall actually having encountered other Colorado EV drivers, on the road, with a vanity plate that tells the world they’re running an EV on sunshine — until today.

Driving to work this morning, I saw a Tesla Model X with the Colorado plate SUN PWD. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to take a quick picture of the car and plate. Don’t worry, we were stopped at a red light when I snapped the photo above with my iPhone: I never text, or take pictures, when driving.

How many of you have vanity plates to tell the world you are driving on 100 percent, green, clean solar-generated electricity? What’s on your plate? And what other ‘solar-charged’ plates have you seen?

This Colorado Tesla owner is telling the world that he/she is gas free! And a supporter of renewable energy

Above is a picture of another Tesla Model S Colorado vanity plate that I saw recently: ‘Byegas’. And the owner has the custom renewable energy plate for his/her Model S as well. Nice

The EV Charging & Solar Initiative provides assistance to organizations to procure affordable EV charging stations, with the option to site solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. [Photo Credit: EPA]

The initiative brings the EPA and South Coast Quality Management District (in California) together to promote the synergy between electric vehicles and solar energy

That’s exactly what we’ve been doing here at SolarChargedDriving.Com since Sept. 2009.

Here’s what it’s all about–>

“The EV Charging & Solar Initiative provides assistance to organizations to procure affordable EV charging stations, with the option to site solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. Participants of this Initiative will receive free assistance to assess and ultimately secure EV charging stations and/or solar PV systems at workplaces throughout the South Coast air basin. Non-profit organizations, local and state governments, colleges and private sector companies located in the South Coast air basin may participate in this Initiative.”

It’s not exactly clear when the initiative was started — or, if it is being negatively affected by the Trump anti-EPA and anti-environment era.

It’s a great idea — and very definitely worth adding to SolarChargedDriving.Com’s “Solar Resources Page” — something I will be doing today :-).

The amazing synergy between solar energy and electric cars hasn’t escaped the attention of a size-able number of electric car owners. In fact, according to a Cleantechnica.Com survey, in some places in North America and Europe, up to 40 percent of EV drivers also have solar panels on their roof.

As Cleantechnica.Com puts it, “Yet again, in our 2017 EV driver report, a very large portion of our respondents had home solar panels, which means that they are essentially ‘fueling’ their electric cars with sunshine.

“Across the six groups surveyed, 28 to 40 percent of respondents said they had home solar panels. This is considerably more than the approximately one percent of homes in the surveyed regions that have solar panels.”

That’s great news — and something we at SolarChargedDriving.Com predicted would happen when we launched SolarChargedDriving.Com all the way back in 2009. Equally big is the fact that larger groups/entities than us — in this case, Cleantechnica.Com are bothering to survey EV owners about whether they have home solar or not. The very fact that EV owners are being surveyed about EV + PV shows that recognition of this synergy is growing.

The single best part about fueling your electric car with home solar-generated electricity, either directly, or through so-called solar-offset?

It’s easily the fueling independence it delivers. No more Big Oil, no more OPEC, no more singular reliance on Big Utility, just you, your home’s roof, solar panels — and your electric car.

Nice!

No solar on these condo roofs at Highline Crossing Cohousing in Littleton, Colo. — although I’m hoping I might persuade them to allow me to install solar on my garage — once I move in in late July 2017.

So, for the past year and a half, I have been renting an apartment in Denver near the University of Denver – where I work – and paying an extra two cents per kilowatt hour for Xcel Energy “Windsource” energy to cover all the electricity use in my two bedroom, 800-square foot apartment plus ALL of the electricity I use to power my 2014 Nissan Leaf, which I have now been leasing for more than four years.

I have to admit, though, that paying extra for some far off wind turbine produced electricity to fuel my Leaf is not nearly as satisfying to me as when I was living in a 1,800-square foot home with a 5.5 kW solar system on it. In fact, far-away/indirect “Windsource” electricity is for me not even close to as satisfying as looking everyday at the panels that produce electricity for one’s EV and home (even if it often ends up being “offset” electricity).

In November 2015, I had to sell that house, with the solar system, thanks to a divorce that is now two and a half years old.

Given what a big deal solar-charging an electric vehicle (admittedly often via solar offset) is to me and to my identity, you would think that I would not put myself in a position where I would buy a condo whose roof, and whose garage roofs, including my garage roof, are not owned by me, but by a condo collective.

Yet, I have done exactly that: In early June of 2017 I bought a three-level condo in a community in Littleton, Colo. called Highline Crossing Cohousing. The primary allure of living there is I am hoping that both I, and my two daughters, who are 10 and 12 years old, will more easily make friends as well as feel much more part of a community than I/we ever did living in the suburban single-family home we owned in Aurora, Colo. from 2005 to 2015. Cohousing communities are more deliberately focused on building community, friendships, etc. than communities which are not cohousing based.

(We have not yet moved into our new townhome/condo, we will be doing so on July 22^nd. )

So, basically, I have opted for community over having my own solar. I could have bought a home for which I owned the roof (although on a journalism professor’s salary, and a single salary, rather than a dual salary, which is what wife-husband partners have, there wasn’t much affordable for me within reasonable distance of the University of Denver). The Front Range housing market is totally nutso, in large part because of all of the Texans, Californians and Midwesterners who are abandoning those places for a much nicer climate here in Colorado and/or cheaper living.

The Highline Crossing Cohousing home web page.

However, just because I opted for community over my own home solar doesn’t mean that I still don’t really want to power my electric car with sunshine. I still very much do wish to fuel my 2014 Leaf with sun. But my initial instinct is to sigh, and say: You will not be allowed to install solar on your garage, you do not own the garage roof PLUS all of the electricity used in the garages is collectively paid for: There are no separate utility meters for each of the 25 or so two-car garages.

On top of the fact that I do not own my garage roof and do not own my townhome roof at Highline Crossing, the roofs are covered by 50-year ceramic/cement shingles that, to me, look like they would present a HUGE challenge in terms of installing solar rails and solar.

At this point, what I most need is a 240-volt outlet to charge my Leaf in my garage. I will very definitely run out of charge again in my Leaf if I am forced to trickle charge at 120-volts. The garages at Highline Crossing do not currently have any 240-volt outlets, although I am hoping that somewhere in the garages there is 30-40 amp circuitry – sorry, I am not good with the correct electrical engineering terminology – or at least the ability to add this circuitry.

I have twice run out of charge in my 2014 Leaf – which, by the way, is my ONLY car. Both times were shortly after my ex-wife moved out of our solar home in Aurora, Colo., and took our gas car, a 2014 Subaru Forester, with her. Prior to her leaving, we could work it out so that even if the Leaf did not fill up completely on a trickle charge, the person who needed the most distance on a given day could drive the Subaru.

For 18 months, my 2014 Nissan Leaf was solar-charged, but now it is only being charged by indirect Xcel Energy “Windsource” electricity. I am hoping to change that, but don’t know if my new HOA will let me install solar on my garage — whose roof is owned collectively by the HOA, not me.

About three months after she moved out of our Aurora, Colo. home, I had my Leaf charging unit modified from 120 to 240-volt and I then ran the charging cord in from the garage to my dryer outlet in the laundry room, located conveniently near our garage.

I was hoping maybe some of you might be able offer advice/feedback/suggestions on how I might most effectively get myself into a position where I am solar charging again in condo HOA. Here are my questions/issues.

1. I need a 240-volt outlet in my garage, or a 240-volt charger, but, of course, I cannot install this without permission from my HOA. Again, electricity use in the 25 garages is collectively paid for by the HOA and, as far as I know, there are no separate utility meters in the garages.
2. I do not plan to ask for permission to install solar on my townhome roof, but I would very much like to install solar on my garage roof: My two-car garage is, like ALL garages in this “cohousing community” deliberately built with no physical connection to my townhome. This forces owners to walk from the garage to their townhome encourages more human interaction.
3. I am considering installing Tesla Powerwalls in my garage, although it all may be too expensive.
4. The scenario I am thinking of right no would be to install a 2 to 2.6 kW system on my garage (whose roof I do NOT own, once again, sigh….), have this system feed electricity into a couple of Tesla Powerwalls, and have a charging unit that would allow me to directly “pull” electricity out of the Powerwalls and into my EV.
5. An alternative would be to install a solar system on my garage roof without the Powerwalls. However, if the electricity in the garages is COLLECTIVE electricity, I’m not sure how that would/could be handled in terms of net metering, etc. There would be a single solar system on one of 25 two-car garages, which would be feeding electricity presumably out to the other garages, but whose production, seemingly could not be monitored effectively vis-à-vis the grid without a separate utility meter with which to measure its production.
6. What can I do in terms of installing a 240-volt plug/30-40 amp plug in my garage – without putting myself into a position where if I am fortunate enough to persuade the community to allow me to install solar on my garage later on – so that the money in this 240-volt outlet will not have been wasted because a completely different set-up would be needed, for example, for a Tesla Powerwall storage + EV charging system?

In theory, most of the people who live in this cohousing community are “progressive” politically, but that does not necessarily mean they are solar friendly. I guess I will find out  just how “progressive” they really are/are not when I move in and request to install solar on my garage roof. I have a feeling that such a request may be denied, but that is my internal pessimism dominating, not what really might, or might now transpire.

So, suggestions on how to best approach powering my EV in a condo cohousing community with collectively shared electricity production and collectively shared payment for garage electricity would be much appreciated.

I could save myself a lot of hassle by simply paying extra for Xcel Windsource electricity and pretending that my EV is powered by renewables. However, that creates such a flat, ho-hum feeling in me compared to having a solar system right over my electric car.

Please help us create a collective Google map of all the solar carports and solar EV charging stations in the world.

Wouldn’t it be cool to know exactly how many solar carports and solar EV charging stations there are in your neighborhood? In your city? In your state? In your country? In the entire world!

If we pool our knowledge of solar carports and solar EV charging stations near us, we CAN, using a special Google Map dedicated to solar carports/solar EV charging stations, map ALL of the solar carports and solar EV charging stations around the globe.

Will you help us do this?

Here’s the URL to the Google Map of Solar Carports/Solar EV Charging Stations –> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MetsinNtPN6KtW-AjB2cPPIAtx8&usp=sharing 

I just signed up for 100 percent wind energy from my utility, Xcel Energy. But my electric car won’t be covered — because my townhome and my garage are metered separately in Highline Crossing Cohousing, and my garage is metered with 40 other garages by a single, collective utility meter.

From February 2014 to November 2015, I was living the solar-charged dream: 100 percent of my EV miles and 100 percent of my home electric use were being covered by production from a 5.5 kW home solar system on my home’s rooftop in Aurora, Colo.

Divorce hit in the summer of 2014, and, by November of 2015, I was selling our home as part of a divorce agreement.

In November of 2015, I moved from a home my now ex-wife and I had owned in Aurora, with a 5.5 kW solar system that, by the time we sold our house in November 2015, had over-produced by more than 2,000 kWh, or enough to drive my Nissan LEAF nearly 10,000 miles, to a small apartment near the University of Denver, where I am a journalism professor.

At 2480 South Humboldt Street, I could not put solar panels up on the roof, although the roof was, and still is, ideal for solar. This because I was renting and did not own the roof. I did the next best thing I had available to me: I signed up for Xcel Energy’s so-called Windsource program, for which I pay 1.5 cents per kwh extra. I signed up for 100 percent Windsource.

I indicated that my electric car will be drawing Windsource because: a) that’s what I was doing at my previous apartment; b) I want Xcel to see that EV owners want renewable energy, not coal or natural gas.

So, technically, and indirectly — far more indirectly than when I had solar on my own home’s rooftop — I continued to run my 2014 Nissan LEAF on 100 percent renewable energy generated electricity, by way of wind “offset”, rather than home solar “offset.”

I kept my custom Colorado license plate — SOLPWRD — despite the fact that I am technically WINPWRD instead.

I just moved into a new townhome in Littleton, Colo. a few weeks ago, where, ideally, some day I will get solar on my garage, a 240 outlet in my garage, and possibly a Tesla Powerwall — though, I will have to ‘politic’ all of these things by my condo association beforehand because I do not own my roof to the garage, or my townhome, the community does.

I just signed up for Xcel Windsource again, for, once again, 100 percent of my electrical use. However, technically I am not running my LEAF on Windsource like I was in my Denver apartment.

Why not?

Garages are not attached to individual townhomes in my “Cohousing Community”. They are deliberately not attached to townhomes in an attempt to create more opportunities to see, greet, and talk with neighbors.

All of the electricity used in the 40 or so garages in the Highline Crossing Cohousing Community in which I now live is metered collectively and paid for collectively via monthly HOA fees.

This means I currently cannot source my car-charging directly to Windsource, because, once again, I do not pay an individual bill for my electricity use in my two-car garage.

Yes, the fact that I do not have an individual meter in my garage — and neither does anyone else — does mean I am charging my  2014 LEAF essentially for free right now. Free fuel for my LEAF is not a bad deal.

However, on the downside, I am currently being forced to trickle charge at 120 volts because none of the 40 garages has a 240-volt outlet. Trickle charging, especially in the winter in Denver with an 84 mile Nissan LEAF can, and sometimes did, lead to me running out of charge.

With 120-volt charging you inevitably fall behind in your charging and are forced to start many trips without a full charge. This due to the glacially slow pace of charging a LEAF via 120 volts (it takes about 17 hours to charge my 2014 LEAF to 100 percent IF I start with a completely empty battery).

Free charging isn’t bad, even if it’s “just” trickle charging — and it will save me about $300 (yes, that’s ALL it costs me to drive my LEAF 10,000 miles in a year!).

However, the environment and promoting renewable energy — and actually living the renewable energy creed to which I ascribe, are far more important to me than money. I honestly do not care if solar-charging saves me money or not (it can, and DOES, save a lot of people A LOT of money) — because solar-charging allows me to drive without creating ANY air pollution at all, and air pollution is a SOCIAL COST that costs all of us via health problems that inevitably come from polluted air.

So, I’m hoping — really, crossing my fingers — that folks here in Highline Crossing will allow me to install solar on my garage’s rooftop, allow me to go to an individual meter (if this is possible), and allow me to install a 240 volt outlet, and a couple of Tesla Powerwalls as well. This all so that I can feel the personal satisfaction of individually creating my own fuel via 100 percent LOCAL, as well as air-pollution free, means.

Stay tuned…;-)

A Nissan LEAF, a Tesla Model S, a BMW i3, and a Chevy Volt all fill up with sunshine generated electricity at the Westport, Conn. train station in this picture captured purely by chance by the Google Maps Car!

So, in doing research for a global map of ALL the world’s solar carports/canopies and solar EV charging stations — something for which I could really use your help in mapping  –>https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MetsinNtPN6KtW-AjB2cPPIAtx8&usp=sharing — I came across this shot of the Westport, Conn. train station parking lot with a Nissan LEAF, next to a Tesla Model S, next to a BMW i3, next to a Chevy Volt all charging at EV charging stations which draw some of their electricity from 30 kW worth of solar panels on the train station building just to their left.

It’s, like, the perfect poster picture for solar-charged driving

I can’t recall ever seeing a photo of four different EV models solar-charging at the same place at the same time — and this happened just by chance, again with FOUR different EV makes and models parked next to each other, at precisely the time the Google car happened to come by and photo-map the Westport, Conn. train station for Google Maps.

Is that cool, or what?