Today’s site is for the Aptera Electric Vehicle, and this thing looks just plain cool. Currently it’s only on sale in California, but with the pricetag of around $30,000 for the plug-in hybrid version (27k for the all electric). Sporting 120 miles on a single charge.
I cannot express how much I want this. Now.
A couple of months ago, Llyod Case wrote an article about putting solar panels up in their house. Now that it’s done they revisit it to tell you how they’re doing.
It’s now almost the end of May, and the solar panel installation is almost done.
Back in January, I discussed our investigation into home solar power. We received a total of three bids, but the final decision was surprisingly easy.
The bidding process itself was illustrative of the ongoing evolution of solar power. The first bid was presented by a classical sales guy, who was in his sixties, and talked endlessly about keeping the customer happy. I don’t mean that as a negative; he was pretty knowledgeable about the tech, but when we’d ask deeper questions, he’d have to defer his response. The document arrived in a classical sales binder, with all the salient information.
The second company was much more high tech. Two guys arrived in a van brightly decorated with the company’s logo and color scheme. The main sales guy had a light meter attached to a Pocket PC, and did all his solar readings using actual measurements from our roof. They supplied us with a PDF file of the preliminary bid, on the spot, using a laptop and the readings collected with the Pocket PC. They were also potentially attractive, because the company had cut a deal with the city of Sunnyvale, offering additional discounts to residents.
The third company was again represented by a single person, though a much younger guy. He was very up front about the process from the beginning, and laid out all the options and costs, including full power conversion, best rate of return and best “green” option, which lay somewhere between the other two options.
The neat thing about all the companies bidding, completely separate from the mechanics of the sales process, was the enthusiasm for solar energy. So which did we choose?
I’m positive that the next house we live in I will have the majority if not all of our roof covered in solar panels. I’m really big on this.
From Gizmodo:
In this week’s New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about the Danish isle of Samsø, which over the past 10 years, has gone from exclusively using fossil fuel energy sources, to living exclusively off renewable energy. Using a combination of onshore and offshore turbines, private mini-turbines, solar panels, straw-burning furnaces and biofuels, the 4,300-resident island has become a sort of a sandbox for green experimentation.
The man responsible for Samsø’s shift is Søren Hermansen, who after deciding farming wasn’t for him, became an environmental sciences teacher, and then a renewable energy expert. Growing up on the island and seeing the impact the people were having on the environment, Hermansen felt he could talk the residents into making some changes. The public response was favorable, and the transformation began. The island now has 11 onshore turbines, a biomass plant, and a straw burning plant, which are invested in by the residents of Samsø, as well as outside, private investors. All the while, this green movement has brought in a constant flow of researchers, scientists and sociologists trying to figure out Samsø’s mojo.
I think this is the coolest thing evar. Things like this are always possible, however, it has always been a vocal minority that has the ability to derail any real plans. Could we do this as a country? Overnight, no. After 50 years of work? Possibly. After 100 years? Of course. I wonder if we have put enough of the proverbial fuel in the “green” engine to kick start the green movement into something sustainable. The Samsø case and what’s going on in Greensburg can only help the cause, and silence the detractors.
Soon, it may be possible for your laptop (or some other device) if geekette Sheila Kennedy has anything to do with it.
Sheila Kennedy hopes to be the first. She’s not an interior designer but an architect and professor in practice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is convinced that solar textiles will revolutionize the way we collect and consume power.
“I’ve been thinking about what happens when power and light become flexible, literally flexible,” she said.
She calls it “soft power,” as in the “soft energy path,” a term coined Amory Lovins in the 1970s as a way to describe a world where renewable energy would gradually replace the centralized grid.
Later, Joseph Nye used the term “soft power” to describe the ability of persuasion, values and culture to influence change.
Kennedy’s work with soft power builds on both of these ideas. For her , soft power is the ability of flexible materials to convert sunlight into energy.
“The soft power approach says there are some incredibly sensual, compelling, beautiful spaces and products that we can be producing using these emerging energy-harvesting materials,” Kennedy said.
The concept while, still inefficient, has potential. I like the concept of being able to walk into a room and not having to instantly scan for a free electrical plug. I would like it even better if I could use the curtains or some other nonconventional power source.
Dave Montoya is cooler than you are. Just deal with that and we'll get along just fine.
Currently looking for a new challange and all around sexy geek.
I also run the parent site Red Leather Couch.
