People wait in line for gas, both for their vehicles and for gasoline generators, at a gas station in New York City in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. [Credit: Flickr.Com Creative Commons Photo by canihazit]

As gasoline lines lengthen and tempers flare to the point where frustrated motorists are throwing punches at each other in the New York City area in the aftermath of a gasoline shortage created by Hurricane Sandy, it’s hard not to wonder about the following questions: What if people were more fuel independent? What if some had a rooftop with solar, an EV, and a battery backup/storage system?

Assuming that their own home/garage and car made it through Sandy without being damaged, it does seem like a home solar PV system + an EV + a battery storage system would be a reasonable, even potentially a great way, to circumvent the hassle, stress and inconvenience of relying on a centralized auto fueling system and a centralized electricity delivery system.

Sandy & fueling independence
Indeed, it seems to me that while Sandy underscores a lot of things that are perhaps more important and pressing than the question of individual home energy and car fueling independence -- most notably the rapidly increasing damage climate change is incurring on humans (you can’t say Sandy was definitely caused by climate change, but you can argue persuasively that climate change contributed to the storm’s intensity and its devastating impact) -- that the notion of more localized energy and fuel production is, at the very least, an intriguing one.

The fallout from Sandy – which clearly underscores the problematic nature of centralized/top-down power and fuel production and distribution – has made me even more determined to one day have a home energy/auto fueling system in which we can run independently of both the larger electric grid and, of course, the traditional auto fueling grid.

How about you?

Do you think Sandy makes a good case for home solar + EV + battery back-up storage, or even perhaps the EV as the PV electricity storage system itself?

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