My New Plug-In Hybrid

This is a quick post to test mobile blogging and show my new Human-Electric Plug-In Hybrid.

New study – Solar cleaner than coal – Duh?!?

There’s a new study from Brookhaven National Laboratory out that states many of the things I have been saying for years.    Here’s the gist: For years I have heard people complain that solar is only 15% efficient so therefore it’s not practical as an energy source.   This argument makes no sense to me since the source of energy (i.e. the sun) is free.    Let’s say someone won’t give you $100 (100%) but they ARE willing to give you $15 dollars (15%), would you take it?  Now say they are willing to give you this $15 a day for 30 years or more ($164,250) if you make an initial investment of approximately $16,425.  Would you do it?   Would you want your government to do it?

But solar is only 15% efficient at converting sunlight to electricity.   I say “so what”.  Internal Combustion Engines are also only 15-20% efficient and they make a terrible mess as well.  Most of gasoline energy is wasted as heat. And, making the gasoline (drilling oil, pumping oil, transporting oil, and refining oil) is incredibly electricity intensive and also incredibly inefficient. Finally, when production and waste inefficiencies are considered solar would cut pollution and greenhouse gases by 90% if it replaced fossil fuels.  If we start building solar panels with solar energy they become an even cleaner and obvious solution to global warming.  

Here’s that study.   

New Powerful Ad

Someone from the NBEAA asked where they can see this ad from my presentation again.   Here it is.  As a father, this ad stirred all sorts of feelings in me – sadness, anger, disbelief.   When it comes to children, nearly anyone would do the right thing and protect them from danger.   But when the danger is years or even decades away, we humans sit on our hands and do nothing?!?   Surely, we are more evolved as a species  than this.   Surely, we have more intelligence than this.  Surely, our species has enough will, desire and technological prowess  to do the right thing and stop the train.   Don’t we?

Santa Rosa Electric Auto Association

Today I drove the car to Santa Rosa to do a Plug-In Hybrid presentation and show the car.    At 794 miles on the first PHEV tank of gas I was down to 10% of gasoline.   I added 4.05 gallons of gasoline which is what I estimate I have consumed driving to public relations events such as this one.   Since these events are further than I would normally drive my PHEV for personal transportation, I decided to classify these trips differently for mileage calculation purposes.   At the end of the tank, I will give total MPG for my driving and all driving including the freeway distance PR events.  

Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

Check out this video and tell me what you think.

Electricification of Vehicles Conference

Today PHEV Spirit of #76 attended the UC Berkeley Electricification of Vehicles Conference. There were at least three Plug-In Hybrids as well as awesome all electric vehicles from Green Motors, Zap Motors, and Phoenix Motorcars. There were many high profile guest speakers including CARB Chair, Mary Nichols.

We’re Driving on Electric Now!

Today was a happy day. It’s official! PHEV conversion #76 is 100% fully functional. When we left the Austin Maker Faire, we had a few minor issues with charging and battery monitoring that, while functionally it was a PHEV, prevented me from operating the vehicle as a PHEV on a regular basis.

Wednesday afternoon/evening was spent at Carolyn Coquillette’s Luscious Garage in San Francisco and together with her help and support, I got it all finished. Thanks Carolyn. I left her garage and filled up the gasoline tank and reset the Prius computer. 22 miles later and including a good stretch of freeway, I was already averaging 80.8 MPG. Now that the car is back in the neighborhood, I expect it to get even better mileage since here I will have greater opportunities for driving in EV mode and for opportunity charging.

Thanks again to the whole CalCars gang (especially Jim Philippi, Ron Gremban and Robb Protheroe) for support and guidance.

Spirit of #76 Returns Home

After a long and somewhat agonizing wait, my car is returned to me today in time for the San Francisco Green Festival. Over the next few days I plan to get a Pentametric Battery Monitoring System installed and troubleshoot a problem that was never addressed in Austin related to the charging system. Once these items are done, I will fill the tank and fill the batteries and begin using the car as a full fledged Plug-In Hybrid.

Shown is a picture of the completed conversion since I realized this has not really been shown on the blog before.

Flagstaff EAA Showing

Here the car is being shown to the Flagstaff Electric Automobile Association Chapter.

Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association

PHEV Spirit of #76 being shown at the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association meeting. Russ Lord of the Free Energy Store sent along this picture. He indicated the vehicle will be featured in  Two of the “Watts Happening” newsletter article.