Kudos to all involved in the Dec. 12 unveiling of Asheville’s first public charging station for photovoltaic-powered electric vehicles.
BioWheels RTS (now Brightfield™ Transportation Solutions) and its partners deserve much praise for offering a viable future for driving on sunshine, rather than depending on oil from foreign suppliers who sometimes are enemies of America.
Plugged in at the event were a Tesla, a Volt, two Leafs and a hobbyist’s 1970 Jeep conversion.
Some critics have claimed electric vehicles are incapable of providing the driving range and horsepower needed in today’s society. Others have said that EVs merely replace oil with coal.
However, the driving range and horsepower of EVs is ever-increasing and, even if the grid were totally coal-fueled, carbon emmisions would be a wash with oil. And experts say criteria pollutants and primary energy consumption would be reduced by a shift to EVs.
The area’s coal grid fraction is 60 percent and falling — and installing PV to offset EV energy consumption will reduce that fraction.
While critics contend that EVs do not pay for themselves, it’s clear to us that technological advances — and dwindling oil supplies and soaring prices — likely will eventually make EVs economical.
What’s more, the compact size of the EVs that boosts their performance will reduce the costs in volume manufacture.
Best of all, EVs could help the U.S. attain its long-desired goal of energy independence.
