Solar Driven™

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Solar Driven™

Asheville Public Works Brightfield- Solar DrivenBrightfield is Solar Driven.   We’ve proven the viability of driving on solar generated electricity through deployment of  our Brightfield Charging Stations.  Our Brightfields solve issues that plague American transportation: 1) provide us a clean and renewable alternative to polluting and finite fossil fuel; 2) create quality local jobs and sustainable economic development; 3) generate domestic, secure and cost-stable fuel; 4) build more durable and resilient communities. Here in western North Carolina our electricity comes mostly from coal strip mined in Virginia and West Virginia through the process known as mountain top removal. In fact, North Carolina leads the nation in mountain top removal coal use. Switching from oil to coal for our transportation sector provides a net environmental gain because the electric motor is much more efficient that the internal combustion engine. But the mining and burning of coal perpetuates the environmentally destructive consequences of burning any fossil fuel namely air pollution, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. There’s no way around the fact that coal fired electricity will play a major role in the EV transition, but Brightfield is proving that by incorporating solar power generation from the onset, we can phase in the solar capacity needed to run the growing regional fleet of EVs to reduce the pressure on existing coal fired power plants and eliminate the need to build new ones. As far as the revenue generation goes, The solar power generated by Brightfields is bundled and sold on the energy markets as Renewable Energy Credits (REC). The RECs are purchased by individuals and companies looking to stimulate renewable power generation and/or offset their own non-renewable electricity use. In North Carolina the RECs are purchased by NC Green Power. The revenue from the sale of RECs covers Brightfield™ operations and maintenance costs and provides cash flow to Brightfield. This is particularly valuable while we wait for the EVs the Brightfields will serve to arrive. With integrated solar power generation, the Brightfield Charging Station is productive from day one every moment the sun is shining. That abundant local sunshine is harvested by the Brightfield’s solar array and put on the grid to power your car. Local fuel is secure fuel. As it stands now, our gas is mostly exported, more and more from Canadian tar sands, which in itself is a very oil dependent form of extraction. And when we buy that oil as gasoline at the pump, only a few cents per gallon stays in the local economy. The rest leaves immediately to be deposited in far away corporate and foreign nation bank accounts. But when we harvest sunshine and send it onto the grid and then draw off the grid to fuel our EVs, more of our fuel dollars stay local where they can serve the local economy.  

Us and Them

My friend’s mother died suddenly. The funeral was like all the other’s I’ve been to, a sad affair. Her brother was there, a sheriff recently back from National Guard tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He embodied the look and feel of a soldier; broad shoulders, crew-cut, spying eyes, terse lips. He and I hadn’t ever spoken much to each other in the past.. “Sorry about your mom,” I said. “Thanks,” he said. “Hard to believe she spent her life as a heart surgeon and died of a heart attack.” “It really is. Life is full of irony,” I said “So what are you up to these days?” he said. I explained the BioWheels RTS story and that we were determined to deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure that leap-frogged fossil fuels and got us all driving on sunshine. I did so with caution, assuming that he’d be skeptical of what is so often dubbed left wing environmental propaganda. But I was wrong. “I never want to see my sons have to go fight in some foreign country to defend our access to oil,” he said. “That has to change.” Our conversation dove head first into the national security and economic growth opportunities of solar-fueled transportation. As we talked, our differing political views dissolved, replaced by our shared values of integrity, freedom, and durable community—values that are the cornerstones of the BioWheels RTS vision. His enthusiasm was a welcomed surprise. “Does this mean your going to give up your F-350?” I said. “Now way?” he said. “I love that truck” I did not respond. To me it was obvious: if you see the connection between war and oil, and you express a desire to see it end so your kids don’t have to endure what you have endured, then you’d stop driving a gas guzzling truck around town. I found myself slipping down judgment’s steep slope. Truth is there is a gap between most of our values and actions, including mine. Seldom do any of us embody our highest ideals. In the end we are all our worst hypocrites. More of life’s irony. “Would you be interested in participating in a community forum about the future of electric vehicles in our region? We’d really value your insights,” I said. “I’d be glad to. Just tell me when,” he said. Because in the end, there truly is no Us and no Them, only We the People. We’re all in this together whether we drive an SUV or a Hybrid. We’re all part of the problems and the solutions. The problems are huge—war, global warming, smog, volatile energy markets, peak oil—and they will need to be met with solutions that are equally huge. For our country to transition from an oil-based transportation sector to one running on sunshine, we’re going to have to confront our collective fear of letting go. What I believe we’ll find once we release our desperate grip on the fossil fuel economy that has simultaneously brought us prosperity and debt, security and uncertainty, abundance and ecological collapse is true freedom. But letting go will take trust in our collective ability to forgive ourselves for our part in the problem, unleash our imagination and ingenuity, and create a bright and inclusive future. Let’s leave Us and Them standing on the side of the road holding empty gas cans. Together we can do this. Join the ride. Go to BioWheels RTS.com to learn more.

EPRI-NRDC Report Finds Environmental Benefits of Deploying Plug-in Hybrid EVs

NRDC_Emissions by Fuel_Graph1

NRDC_Emissions by Fuel_Graph1

Back in 2007 the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)  released a comprehensive assessment that found that widespread use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the United States could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potentially improve ambient air quality. The research measured the impact of increasing numbers of PHEVs between 2010 and 2050, including the nationwide environmental impact of potentially large fleets that would use electricity from the grid as their primary fuel source.
The study assumed that by 2050, PHEV would have a 60% share of the US vehicle market.  At that market share, nationwide GHG emissions would be reduced by 450 million metric tons—equivalent  to taking 82.5 million cars of the road—and reduce petroleum consumption be 3-4 million barrels of oil per day. Those numbers are significant especially since they do not take into account powering the electric vehicles with renewable energy.  That’s the game changer.  As BioWheels RTS is demonstrating, generating enough renewable energy to fuel America’s light duty vehicles is possible, practical and really inspiring. We look forward to partnering with researchers to calculate the full environmental cost and benefit of driving on sunshine.  We’ll be looking at the full cost of our Brightfield™  Solar Charging Stations including the embedded energy in all the station’s materials.  We’ll also look at the benefits of generating solar power instead of relying on oil, coal, natural gas or nuclear power to fuel our cars and trucks. We believe that transparency and integrity are the guide posts we all need to follow. http://mydocs.epri.com/docs/CorporateDocuments/SectorPages/Portfolio/PDM/PHEV-ExecSum-vol1.pdf

Technology of Community

Bill McKibben wrote: “The technology we need most badly is the technology of community – the knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. Our sense of community is in disrepair.” I think he’s right.  Whether we’re talking about energy, transportation, food systems, education, the economy, government, or any other current ailing part of America, we’re ultimately talking about a failure to find effective and inclusive solutions. When we’re born in or immigrate to this ‘Land of Opportunity’, we’re promised our individual rights. without a requirement to commit to individual responsibilities.  Without individual responsibilities we have no foundational allegiance to community.  Instead we create a hyper individualized society that continually acts as if the individual parts are greater than the sum of the whole.  And down the rabbit hole we go; the right to free speech without the responsibility to listen to other points of view, the right to freedom of religion without the responsibility to respect and honor all religious traditions, the right to free press without the responsibility to communicate honestly, etc. If we’re going to repair our national sense of community, we’re going to have to begin to take personal responsibility for the consequences of our actions.  Brightfield™ RTS is part of a new era of community-based business.  We are a company that has the right to make money, but also the responsibility to help build a more durable and resilient community, and to do so with honesty and transparency.  That’s why we’re installing electric vehicle charging stations that generate renewable solar energy.  Beyond the environmental benefits of harnessing the power of the sun versus burning fossil fuels, the community benefit of harvesting local energy is tremendous: fuel dollars stay in the community instead of going to Big Oil and foreign governments,  quality local jobs are created, local health effects from tailpipe and coal power plant emissions are reduced, and a vision of a desirable future where America drives on sunshine is made real. To succeed at transforming America’s transportation sector takes serious community cooperation across sectors including governments, neighborhoods, educational institutions, manufacturers, investors, activists… the list goes on.  This is not easy work, but it is rewarding work that must be done because when we come together with a shared sense of purpose the result is not only solar powered transportation, but a region that is re-learning how to cooperate to get things done. We’re all in this together.

Leap Forward

I often find myself defending the idea that we can fuel electric vehicles with solar power.  Obviously, I’m convinced we can drive on sunshine otherwise I never would have co-founded Brightfield™ Responsible Transportation Solutions (RTS).  My optimism makes me an easy target for those who doubt that electric vehicles are viable, or that solar power is anything more than boutique energy. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that electric vehicles are going to claim a share of the market. But powering the vehicles on sunshine?  I can’t see that happening,” he said. “Why not?  The sun delivers more power to the earth every day than man has generated throughout the entire industrial revolution,” I said. “The sun delivering power and us harnessing it are two different things.  It’s a pipedream,” he said. “But isn’t it fueling America’s automobiles with clean renewable sunshine a pipedream worth dreaming?” I said.  “Look, if we were having this conversation circa 1860 and I was telling you that I had a great idea for powering America that involved digging hundreds of millions of years into the ground to pump up oil and process it into energy to fuel a technologically advanced global economy what would you say?” “I don’t know,” he said. “And if I told you that my vision would require an annual military budget around $100 billion to secure and defend oil reserves on 6 continents, what would you say?” “That you were nuts,” he said. “So then how come you don’t see our dependency on oil as nuts?” I said. “Because it works.  I put gas in my car and off I go.  Simple.” “Simple until you look at all the external costs,” I said.  You got the military costs plus the costs resulting from the environmental damage from the over 6000 barrels of oil spilled each year and the great unknown long-term costs of global warming.” “Fine.  It’s not so simple, but it still works,” he said “And so does generating electricity from solar panels and using that energy to fuel electric vehicles.  Fossil fuels are nothing more than ancient solar energy.  Why go through all the effort and strife to access old solar energy when the sun going to deliver more than we need tomorrow and the next day?” I said. “I don’t know.  It just seems far-fetched.  Our economy is based on fossil fuels,” he said. “I’m just talking about replacing the oil we use in our cars,” I said. “Still seems like a big leap for America to take,” he said. “It is.  That’s the beauty of it,” I said.  “We have the opportunity to take a big leap that will create jobs, eliminate our dependency on foreign oil, provide secure locally sourced fuel, reinvigorate American ingenuity, and significantly reduce our contribution to the global warming crisis.  What’s to loose?” Take the leap.