Rooftop solar statistic of the day

The interviews we have been conducting of current solar-charged drivers for SolarChargedDriving.Com make it clear that long-term savings are one of the great benefits of powering a plug-in vehicle partially, or fully, via home solar-generated electricity.

For example, after eight years and 137,000 solar-charged miles, J. Marvin Campbell of Culver City, Calif. estimates he's saved $27,000 (assuming gas costs of $3 per gallon). Similarly, Darell Dickey says he's saved $20,000 after seven years and about 107,000 miles of solar-charged driving. Several other solar-charged drivers we've talked to also say they've realized substantial economic savings by solar-charging an EV.

We could put a 10 kW solar system on our home's roof -- but Xcel Energy won't give us a rebate if we do.

Want to solar-charge an EV (electric vehicle) but don’t have a solar system or an EV yet?

You might want to consider buying the EV first, then installing your solar system.

Why?

As we recently discovered, some utilities, including Xcel Energy, the utility for Colorado’s so-called Front Range where we live, might make life hard for you if you try to do what we tried to do:

1. Oversize your solar system so that the system will cover 100-percent of your home electric use and 100-percent of the annual miles you log on an EV that you have not yet purchased or driven;

Here's a quick follow-up to the entry I wrote about micro-inverters two days ago. First, I should clarify that Enphase Energy's micro-inverters have a projected lifetime of 25 years, not 119 years. Of course 25 years is considerably longer than the 10- to 15-year projected lifetime for traditional inverters.

Second, Enphase Energy responded very quickly to an e-mail inquiry I sent to them. It helps to further clarify some of the potential benefits of a micro-inverter based system. So, I've pasted it below -->

Utility rebates for solar are generally dropping right now in the U.S.

Nationally, rebates for solar residential systems are on their way down.

This isn't really news to me -- but the fact that the New York Times is now covering the drop on its green blogging pages is making me very anxious -- especially since we're still waiting to hear from Xcel Energy and whether or not they will approve our proposed 5.5 kW solar system with REC Solar for a rebate based on two brand new Econo-Heat, Envi heaters we just purchased on Saturday.

I estimate the heaters will boost our annual kWh consumption by about 2,200 kWh.

I know, it seems crazy that we have to add to our electric use to get the solar system we need to power a future EV, but that's how it is.