Ten + things you can do to drive solar forward

solar panels, flowers, toyota priusIf you are interested in promoting solar energy, and solar-charged driving, there are a number of things you can do.

We offer a partial list below. We anticipate adding more ideas to this list as they come to mind — and as readers contact us with ideas.

1. If you’re a homeowner with the financial means, put solar panels on your home!

2. If you’re considering buying a new car within the next two to five years, buy an EV and/or PHEV — and, if you can, plug it fully, or at least partially, into solar!

3. If you’re a homeowner with the appropriate roof “spread” and orientation and energy usage profile, and you have the financial ability to do so, “oversize” your solar system so that you can cover 100-percent of your annual home electrical use and as many solar-charged EV, PHEV miles — or what SCD.Com calls Sun Miles™ — as possible.

4. If you’ve gone solar, talk solar up to friends, neighbors, family and co-workers!

5. If you’re going to get an EV and/or PHEV, or already have one, talk EVs/PHEVs up to friends, neighbors, family and co-workers!

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6. If you’re going to go solar and get an EV/PHEV and partially or fully solar-charge it — or, better yet, have already done these, talk solar-charging up to friends, neighbors, family and co-workers!

7. When you’re talking up any, or all of the above, don’t forget the cyber-world, meaning use Facebook, your blog, your photo gallery on flickr.com, your YouTube Channel(s) etc. to talk solar, EVs/PHEVs and solar-charged driving up.

8. Talk up solar, EVs/PHEVs and solar-charged driving in traditional media as well, for instance, through a letter-to-the-editor, a guest column, and/or by contacting local media to encourage them to tell your story. If you’re driving 100-percent Sun Miles™, that is interesting and there’s a decent chance local media might cover your story!

9. If you’re driving a solar-charged EV and/or PHEV, consider advertising for solar-charged driving to other drivers through some sort of advertising on your car!

10. Consider proposing to your employer that they go solar, perhaps through a Solar Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA); this is a lease of solar panels which typically allows large companies to go solar without large upfront costs. An SPPA also typically saves companies considerable amounts of money on their electricity bill. HP, Wal-Mart, the University of California, San Diego, and Denver International Airport are a few of the hundreds of companies and organizations who have “gone solar” through an SPPA.

green-green-sky111. Buy from companies that use solar and/or renewables to power themselves (for instance, SolarChargedDriving.Com is hosted by rochen.com, which buys RECs).

12. Reduce your energy consumption at home and at work; not only do you save money and help the planet, you also indirectly ensure that as more and more of America’s, and the world’s, energy demands are produced by solar and other renewables that these will comprise a higher percentage of total energy use.

13. If, for whatever reason going solar yourself, and moving to solar-charged driving yourself is not possible, consider smaller scale measures; for instance, if you have the money, and the need for a new car, consider buying the new Toyota Prius with the ventilation system powered by a solar panel on the roof of the car, or, considering getting your current Prius retrofitted with lithium-ion batteries and solar panels by a company such as solar electric vehicles, so that more of the miles you drive are partially powered by the sun; it helps solar to advertise solar by way of solar panels on your car!

14. If you have the money, donate to green organizations such as Sierra Club, Audubon Society, League of Conservation Voters, etc.

15. Volunteer at a local grassroots environmental organization.

16. Stay abreast of local, national and international environmental legislation and lobby your elected officials on behalf of solar and renewable energy.

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prius-resources-page-image Like this story? Interested in the solar-EV/PHEV synergy? Join our Sun Miles™ Club and start meeting & interacting with other people around the world who want to drive, or already are driving, their cars on sun! Register to join us today!