Solar-charged in tropical Hawaii

Christof Demont-Heinrich
News features: Solar-charged driving

volt-solarGM-Volt.Com recently ran an excellent story on solar-charged Chevy Volt driver Jason King, a writer and photographer living in Maui, Hawaii who figures his driving will soon be effectively “free” due to low-cost solar panels he had installed to keep his car charged.

We encourage you to read the full GM-Volt.Com story, written by Jeff Cobb. But we also offer a short summary here, after the break below.

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Here are some of the highlights of Cobb’s story on Maui’s solar-charged Volt driver:

  • Even as gas prices yo-yo, King sits back and stays relaxed, thanks to his solar-charged driving set-up: “Gas prices are only going up. Gas here is around $5 a gallon, and I drive by just laughing, you know?”
  • For King, the solar-charged savings are rolling up fast: “I was previously spending at least $2,500 a year on gasoline so that means in two years the solar panels have paid for themselves, compared to what I previously spent on gas. You know – in terms of the cost of the solar panels to power it. That means in two years my driving is not only pollution free, it’s free.”
  • King says his solar power system includes 24 deep-cycle batteries for storage, and a diesel generator backup – which he rarely if ever uses, and he looks forward to when the Volt can be used in a smart grid application as his backup.
  • King’s getting outrageously high gas mileage – thanks to the fact that he almost always runs his Volt on sun electricity: He estimates he’s only used about four gallons of gas and has effectively driven the Volt at 2,000 miles per gallon – with his electricity soon to be paid off as well.
  • Finally, King’s got a custom Hawaii license plate for his Volt that reads, “Solar” 🙂

To read the full GM-Volt.Com story, go to: http://gm-volt.com/2012/05/04/jason-king-is-on-his-way-to-driving-his-volt-for-free/

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