April is a month of spring renewal and future-thinking. With Easter just around the corner and Earth Day just after that, it’s a month of greenery and new beginnings. While we may be looking at brisk weather and overcast days, it’s still important to get an early start if you’re looking to save energy this spring and summer. The answer here is in solar power and a more energy-efficient vehicle.
Saving Energy with Green Vehicles
While it’s not always economical to go out and purchase a brand new all-electric vehicle, those of you who already have them or are in the market for a new car already should take advantage of these wondrous vehicles. It’s a sad truth that the production for these vehicles does require energy-use and petroleum consumption that’s at least equivalent to production for a standard vehicle. But once you already have the car that’s when the green-energy savings begin. Since you aren’t burning fuel and, for most EVs, oil and lubricants aren’t common replacements, you can decrease the impact you’re having on the environment. But here’s where energy gets a little tricky.
You see, whether you’ve installed a specialized recharge station into your home or not, your car is still pulling energy from the electrical grid. While the state of Iowa plans to produce up to 57% of its energy from wind power, that still leaves a substantial amount of energy from other sources, including traditional fossil fuel plants. So, while your vehicle now has a smaller carbon footprint, it isn’t perfect just yet since it pulls energy from the same places the rest of your home does. Still, there’s a way for you to help reduce that even further.
Home Solar Panel Installation
It’s not something we think about when it’s overcast, but solar panels are a great way to reduce costs for your home. True they have their flaws in that they won’t power your home at night (when it’s most needed during the winter) and have trouble producing enough power during rainy days, but overall they’re well worth the investment. A strong battery backup can help make up for solar energy’s shortfalls, but adding in solar panels doesn’t remove you from the grid entirely, it just lessens your dependence on it. Plus, most utilities have an energy buyback program where they use excess power from your home to power shortfalls on the grid, lessening dependence and decreasing the amount you pay in utilities monthly.
Plus, this way you can power your car using the sun. The sun is the only true fusion reactor that we have access to, and it’s the cleanest power source we know of. All renewable-energy on earth comes from the sun. Wind currents only exist because of solar heating, and hydro-electric wouldn’t work without running water. A solar power plant on the roof of your home is just cutting out the middle-man when it comes to energy. We aren’t using up the resources of our sun either, since they would be produced whether we use it or not. So it’s time to cut out the middle man and install a solar cell in your home to help power everything from the refrigerator to your all-electric vehicle. The benefits outweigh the cons.
