Man Offers Free Charging for Electric Cars on His Solar Farm
In the tiny Aspen sleeper community of El Jebel, Colorado, a man is on a mission. Jim Duke has always been known for his environmental streak — back in the 80s he spearheaded efforts to establish recycling and composting programs for Aspen and surrounding communities.
Now he’s spent $84,600 to install a large array of solar panels on his ranch capable of producing 15,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually — and he’s giving away the power for free to charge any electric cars who’s owners show up on his doorstep.
He’s gotten rid of his gas stove and changed out his gas boiler for an electric one. To further ween his family from carbon, he’s purchased two cars from Miles EV for every day trips to and from town.
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Although the up front costs are huge, Mr. Duke is eligible for nearly $51,000 in federal, state, local and power company credits, which take the edge off just a little bit. Still, $34,000 is a gigantic chunk of change to lay out for a project that could take decades to pay off.
But it doesn’t seem that a pay off is what Jim Duke is looking for — he sees becoming carbon neutral as an obligation to future generations and the planet, saying, “It’s way, way, way past the point for talk. It’s time for action.”
Source: The Aspen Times
Image Credit: Jordan Curet/The Aspen Times
This man is a hero.
‘Not a role of government’? Do any of you realize it may be already too late, (without intervention) who do you think is not bringing clean energy to the market? The corporations. Stop with this demand and supply thing, if green car becomes available in the many dealerships near my house I will buy one, it is at least 50% (I would say up much more) up to the dealership to make it available to me, not me going and dropping a suggestion in their comment box for god’s sake.
It’s no use blaming the government. What can it actually do?
Force people to buy electric cars, home insulation or low watt light bulbs… Impossible in a free society (Can you say “black market”?). Or how about subsidies? Not working too well!
The easiest and best way is to raise the price of fossil fuels with a tax. When solar power is cheaper than grid power, everyone will want solar panels. Want to see electric cars instead of SUV’s? Raise the price of gas. People will jump on electric cars.
Basic economics — anything cheap or free is wasted. Energy is too cheap. Proof of that — it is wasted.
Mandating or regulating, I know pretty much taboo in some part of the world, are not the same as forcing. A regulatory body sets rules on clean air issues and when faced with the need (because of the things occurring around us) and an availability due to regulations the consumer will make the choice to increase the chances of having a better future. Whether those regulations include increased taxes or other mandatory (stopping production of certain light bulbs, plastic bags, or more electric cars, tax breaks for green products) is up to everybody to decide.
Right on dmoore
The government, Bush, Obama, republicans or Democrats are not going to save us from ourselves. Regular people like Jim Duke, doing the right thing simply because it’s a positive thing to do is what will. People like us who know that the kind of cars we drive and the kind of fuels we burn in them really matters, will do the saving. Not some government mandate ot tax.
Awesome! And the $35k cost is not all that much when you consider he will not pay anything for fuel, electricity, for the lifetime of those panels. Kudos to Jim Duke! Could he possibly be recognized as a charitable entity for giving away free electricity to those in need? Maybe some tax breaks there …
Many people I know wouldn’t purchase micro vehicles. Their arguments usually fall into the “it can’t survive a crash” category. While the Smart car shows an incredible ability to keep the passenger compartment relatively free of damage (too bad the video I saw of the crash testing tried hard to say not safer than a different vehicle… every other car out there is BIGGER than a Smart), their perceptions are firm. Many know about the successful Prius or the earlier EV-1, but they refuse to accept smaller vehicles for any reason. In a somewhat twisted argument, they decide that the traction issues in northern climate winters are an overriding decision maker. They will drive a gas guzzling 4 wheel drive pickup truck, no matter what. The deeper issue is a matter of complicated interactions: what hydrogen fuel station? Will my employer allow me to recharge my car at work? I cannot afford the necessary solar panels and attendant hardware (inverter) to support large amperages needed to recharge vehicles. The list goes on, and common folks are simply saying “no chance I’m making a move now”. I believe that people would change if the refueling infrastructure for the target technology was about 50% the current petroleum based refueling capability. And also, these consumers MUST be FORCED to choose the next technology, so federal action is mandatory.
Oh, BTW I daily drive a 36+ MPG car, not an SUV; my 4WD pickup is used for long plowing my rural driveway, not for daily commuting.
Show your work! Since the writer couldn’t be bothered, we have to make assumptions.
Assuming an average of 12 hours of sun per day you have:
15,000kwh/yr/365dy/12hr = 3.42kw array
$84,600/3,420watts = ~$25/watt installed.
While tax subsidies are nice for getting a technology off the ground, they can’t be relied on. While I applaud the intentions of Mr. Duke his installation is a relatively poor example of the use of photovoltaics. Either that or the math is flawed?
@ MArk and dmoore,
I do not expect the government to force anyone or to save the world. What I do expect them to do is help build the infrastructure that makes these types of renewable resources easily attainable. I am far from a socialist or as I was accused earlier a fascist, but I do believe in the proper use of government resources to help make it easier to do the right thing. That is the purpose of laws and it is time they were used to help spur this change over.
Doug
Government is a blunt instrument. When you try to have government do one thing, there are often all kinds of unanticipated consequences. For example I do not think that when the EPA was created anybody thought that it was going to prevent people from installing equipment that would allow dual use gasoline or compressed natural gas. However, that is the result of current EPA policies.
The best thing that the government can do is to change some incentives, by raising oil import taxes, for example. They can also try to remove government barriers to improvements such as removing the excessive EPA requirements on CNG conversion or allowing electric utilities to sell electric car charging service with a separate circuit that is only live at night but which provides much cheaper power.