Dirty Coal statistic of the day

Peder Norby's solar panels (right) generate the electricity that powers his MINI E (left). (Photo Courtesy of Peder Norby)

Peder Norby behind the wheel of his solar-charged MINI E. (Photo Courtesy of Peter Norby)

Sometimes when he’s shooting down a California freeway in his MINI, Peder Norby breaks out into spontaneous laughter.

Norby’s straight-from-the-heart laughter and the impossible-to-suppress smiles that accompany it come not only because his MINI is actually a rare MINI E, as in an electric MINI – though that’s part of it. And they come not only because the MINI E is a joy to drive -- though this, too, is part of it.

The sweeping smiles and spontaneous laughter Norby has been known to erupt into while behind the wheel of his MINI E also express a certain amount of happy incredulousness.

You see, Norby is running his MINI E on sun power generated by his Carlsbad, Calif. home’s 7.5 kW solar system.

Run On Sun CEO and Founder Jim Jenal poses amid the panels of a 4.9 kW solar system installed by Run On Sun. (Photo Courtesy of Run On Sun)

Millions of Americans could one day run their cars on sun. And if Jim Jenal has anything to do with it, many of the future Sun Milers™ living in the Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif. area will generate their one-hundred percent air pollution free solar fuel via a Run On Sun home solar system.

Tom Moloughney's MINI-E parked in front of the 8.8 kW home solar system that powers it. (Photo Courtesy of Tom Moloughney)

Moloughney’s MINI-E electric vehicle sports “EF-OPEC” license plates and chrome badges that read “Electric,” making known his passion for EVs and his disdain for America’s reliance on foreign oil for transportation.

To spread the message farther than he can drive in his EV, Moloughney also shares his Mini-E experiences with the world on his blog, MINI-E #250.

Moloughey recently took his passion for zero-emissions driving one step further: He installed a solar array on his New Jersey home to charge his Mini-E and cover 90 percent of his home power needs.

(Photo of Alan Gray courtesy of Alan Gray and Earth Garden)

For the editor of an Australian-based publication dedicated to sustainable living, the decision to go zero -- zero-emissions, that is -- was easy.

Alan Gray and his wife Judith publish Earth Garden, a magazine about alternatives to a high-consumption lifestyle, based out of Trentham, Victoria, Australia.

Gray has generated electricity for his home with a 7.3 kW hour system on his roof since 1995. He has long dreamed of using the sun for transportation energy by powering an electric vehicle with solar power.

(Photo courtesy of Andrej Pečjak)

Meet Andrej Pečjak. He could very well be the first, and possibly only, solar-charged driver in Slovenia, a small, beautiful country of two million people sandwiched between Austria, Italy, Croatia and Hungary.

Pečjak's pushing the envelope of solar-charged driving in Slovenia primarily for one reason:

“I wanted to prove it is possible to drive emissions free,” he says.

You might not know his name and you probably have never met him, but chances are that if you’ve ever done a little bit of searching for information on electric vehicles on the Internet you’ve landed on his web site.

Meet Darell Dickey, self-described “EV Nut” and founder of the highly trafficked website EVnut.com.

For Jason Quail, the most important reason for living green is improving the environment for those who will inhabit the planet in the future.

This is why two years ago when he and his wife Jeannie thought about which new car to purchase, their decision centered on keeping the world healthy for future generations.

Actress and EV and environmental activist Alexandra Paul.

Actress and activist Alexandra Paul believes one of the most important things in life is to live what you believe in.

And one of the things she believes in most is a greener, cleaner more sustainable world. That’s why she’s been driving an EV (electric vehicle) since 1990.

That’s well before most Americans had even heard of an EV and long before Chris Paine’s now cult-classic documentary film ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ – in which Paul plays a starring role as a real-life EV activist – helped drive EVs onto the radar screen in the U.S.

Paul’s dedication to living her environmental ideals also explains why the L.A. actress – perhaps most famous for her role as Stephanie Holden in the hit show Baywatch -- sees the solar-EV synergy as so crucial to the future of EVs as well as to the future of humanity and the earth itself.

“I think solar is the answer,” said Paul in a recent phone interview with SolarChargedDriving.Com. “If you’re going to drive an EV and rely on a grid that might be fired by coal, I would say we haven’t gone far enough. Photovoltaic and green power simply have to be part of the EV solution.”

Paul Scott and Zan Dubin Scott in front of their home solar system.

A 2002 Toyota RAV4 doesn’t normally inspire dropped jaws -- unless, of course, you’re talking about Paul Scott’s and Zan Dubin Scott’s RAV4.

The Santa Monica, Calif. couple has been wowing other drivers for seven years and 75,000 miles in their 2002 RAV4. Not with a fancy paint job, not with a 10,000 watt stereo system, not with a sizzling 0-60 time, but by driving their car on sun.

Scott and Dubin Scott, who advertise the fact that they’re driving on sunshine by way of a custom California license plate that reads, “SUN PWRD,” and by way of an electric vehicle logo on their car, have gotten the thumbs up from many people over the years. And not just from other drivers.