Few things are as satisfying as knowing that your own, local rooftop solar system is actively, and 100%, filling up the battery of an electric vehicle!
It just makes me smile every time I know it is happening. And, with a combination of the MyChevy app and the Emporia electrical production and consumption app, I can check and find out exactly when my 2020 Chevy Bolt’s batteries are being filled 100% with solar-generated electricity produced by the 9.7 kW solar system on our community garages here at Highline Crossing Cohousing.
So, for example, this morning at precisely 7:06 a.m., or about 20 minutes after I walked out to my detached garage here at Highline Crossing to plug my Bolt in — I had waited to plug it in and not plugged it in at night because I KNEW we were going to have a great May sun day today here in Littleton, Colo. and I want to fill up on sunshine directly as much as possible! — I watched as the Emporia app showed that our solar system was producing MORE energy than was being consumed on the same primary circuit/electrical box through which the solar system is wired and to which the circuit for my garage is connected.
What a GREAT feeling! 🙂
And what a totally OPPOSITE feeling from the feelings countless people on the East Coast are experiencing right now thanks to panic buying of gasoline after a ransomware attack has temporarily shut down a major gasoline pipeline: My smile is at the happiness, joy, satisfaction that LOCAL fuel production automatically produces. Local solar production of clean, green, affordable and renewable auto fuel does NOT need a vulnerable, centralized pipeline. Instead, electricity is produced on the spot and flows just a few feet from the solar panels on our garage roof into the battery of my 2020 Chevy Bolt.
We ALL could be doing this if we moved to a much SAFER and secure micro-grid system with local rooftop and parking lot canopy solar paired with local battery storage, including in-home batteries — with this LOCAL approach to fueling further strengthened and further decentralized via bi-directional EV charging.
Yes. We. Could. AND we should!