A giant snowman in Ithaca, New York, which is probably better known for its snowy winters than for its sun. But Ithaca's still got enough sun to solar-charge resident Bob Armstrong's Chevy Volt. [Photo Credit: Flickr.Com Creative Commons Photo By mabel.sound]

Ithaca sits smack dab in the middle of New York State’s infamous snow-belt, and, in the winter at least, is one of the grayest places in the United States. But that hasn’t stopped Bob Armstrong from running his Chevy Volt on sun.

Armstrong’s got a sizeable ground-mounted PV system that both partially powers his Volt and provides much of the electricity for his home. In one year, he generated 20,000 kilowatt hours with his pole-mounted tracking PV system.

As Armstrong told Ithacajournal.Com recently in a feature the paper wrote about him, “I like being self-sufficient.”

Indeed, he does!

Making their own electricity & food
The Journal notes that, among other things, Armstrong and his wife grow their own food, make jam from their fruit orchards, use the manure from their goats to fertilize their crops and use water from their pond to irrigate them.

According to the Journal, the couple supports themselves with day jobs but primarily invest their time into tending their land.

“Security is not just about money,” Armstrong told the Journal. “I feel grounded and connected, and better for not stinking up the planet.”

And, as the Journal notes, despite Ithaca’s propensity for cloudy weather, Armstrong hasn’t had difficulty generating plenty of solar electricity.

“There’s plenty of sun here,” he told the Journal.

To be sure! In fact, there’s plenty of sunshine just about anywhere on the planet to power not only our everyday household electricity use, but enough to power many of the miles we drive as well, as Armstrong’s example clearly shows :-)

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