During the past six years, my wife Julie and I have generated 60 megawatt hours of electricity with our 7.5 kW home solar system – and we’ve driven more than 60,000 of what SolarChargedDriving.Com calls Sun Miles®, meaning miles driven by an electric vehicle (EV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) whose batteries have been charged using solar energy and/or using electricity from kWh credits amassed via solar offset generation.

Differently put, for the past six years, we’ve owned our own solar micro power plant.

By July of 2012, the $30,000 we spent on our solar PV system was completely recovered by the savings in utility and gasoline cost.

“The only path to energy and climate security is a comprehensive energy infrastructure focused on renewable resources and improved, harmless-emission fuels.”   
--Maj. Gen. Anthony L. Jackson, USMC (Ret.), Fossil fuel dependence leaves America vulnerable

In 2006 with the construction of our family home, my wife Julie and I began to do our share to help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, much of which comes from dangerous places in the Middle East.

That’s when we started to shift to car fueling self reliance by adding solar PV to our new home. We also began our shift away from gasoline towards electricity.

Most of us are going to be driving for about 50 years. I have been driving for 33 years and plan on driving another 30, hopefully in all electric BMWs. Above is a flow graph I put together that shows the basic flow of energy and cost for gasoline and for solar electricity. This is the true "cost of fuel" for driving during those 50 years.

The graph is simple to understand. It does not include external cost such as the protection of oil, propping up oil supplying countries, clean up of oil, environmental or healthcare cost, nor does it include the cost of grid electricity at night when an electric car normally charges. Electricity at night is generally cheaper and of lesser value than the electricity provided by solar during the peak hours.

Nor does the graph include the price of the cars themselves. A reasonable argument can be made for both the gasoline car and the electric car as to which one will be cheaper to own and maintain for the next 50 years. I'm betting on the electric car :)

Recently, I wrote about some of the progress the National Football League has seen in terms of promoting and utilizing solar technology at games and in other events.

If you talk to the majority of season ticket holders and hardcore football fans, it seems like their sentiments are generally the same: “We would love solar energy usage at games… But only if it doesn’t raise the already-ridiculous price of football tickets.”

In terms of my personal opinion on solar in the NFL, I couldn’t agree with them more. Make use of the exceptional marketing opportunity that is football, but do it without hurting the fans.