Next Charging Station: 3000 Miles, or 300 Feet?

So, I've been reading a bit lately about alternative fuels and how exactly we can get them to where we need them. It's a huge issue, and one which can and should be tackled in the current push to rescue our economy.

See, here's the deal: It's always sunny in California. Rivers run hard in the Rockies. The windy plains are exactly that. Which is great--we can have solar power and hydroelectric power and wind power--heck, there are even fantastic places to harness geothermal power here in the United States. It's a big country after all.

Which of course, is the problem. The US doesn't have one power grid, we have several. So solar energy just can't get from the sunny valleys of the West to the dreary North very easily. Or at all, in some cases. What is needed in this country is a unified smart grid.

Now you've heard me talk about smart grids before. They are designed so that it is easy and efficient for energy to travel the length and breadth of the grid, making sure that all the places in between can get the energy they need--or give the energy they have, if that's the situation.

This can be done. It's going to take a lot of manhours (which, you know, means more jobs) and a lot of science and engineering and materials production (again, more jobs) to accomplish it, but it's possible. Just ask the Repower America group.

So, say we have this wonderful smart grid with its fancy smart meters. Say that photovoltaic power gets more inexpensive and we can all afford a couple of PV sheets on our roofs. We make more power than we use, we get a kickback, we don't make more power than we need, the grid provides it the same way it's always done--except of course that the power might be coming from across the country instead of across the state.

Wonderful for homes. Equally wonderful for cars running on electric power, especially if the newest version of fast-charge batteries become a reality. But really, all of this is only wonderful if we have a station every single place it's needed. Which could be in your home.

Take people who are being given the chance to own the first run of the BMW MINI E electric car. As lucky bum Stefano Paris tells us over at Revenge of the Electric Car, the requirements for getting one are pretty rigorous. One very important part of the puzzle, of course, is where you're going to park and charge the little electric monster. BMW is going to great strides to make sure that the first run of its electric cars don't meet the same fate as earlier versions. (See the movie Who Killed the Electric Car if you want to be outraged at how this technological innovation was squandered in the twentieth century.)

Or what about hydrogen fuel cell cars like the Chevy Equinox FC? Hydrogen-powered cars only work if there's hydrogen to be had. To which end, California has been planning an alternative fuel highway for a few years now. Their plan was to have it completed by some time next year, but it looks like it might take another five at least.

Which matters not at all if we can't get the cars on the road.

Why blather about all of this? Because we need to come up with solutions for these problems. Maybe.... Maybe neighborhoods go in on hydrogen fueling stations--buy it as a community and the community reaps the benefits and profits, instead of the oil companies. Maybe the same happens with solar-powered recharging stations. Imagine a whole neighborhood with one central parking lot, filled with recharging stations powered in part by the sun.

Really, it's all a question of rethinking the way we get resources. Do the oil companies have to turn into hydrogen fueling companies? Isn't there some other way--some more local and more personal way--to get what we need?

What do you think? Any ideas?

Solar Power, Part I: "I'll call you from the sun"

Ah, solar power! Now, here in the northern climes of the midwest, we don't have a lot of sunny days this time of year. But we've had a few recently, and it has me thinking about the amount of power that is being wasted every time I plug into a wall instead of into the sun. But it doesn't have to continue that way.

While it's an initially pricey investment, buying a personal solar charger is a great way to lighten the load on your local electrical grid. You can charge your smart phone via the sun and save a bundle over the life of the charger. If you have a smart phone, this particular grid-evasion is fantastic, since you can check your email and the web without ever plugging in your computer. I find it a little cumbersome to do email on my phone, but after having to do it for much of last week, I'm actually used to it and have started leaving my computer off in the mornings and just checking my email this way. Another tip on smart phones? Set your preferences to check mail manually instead of every ten minutes or half an hour. This stops you from using too much of the battery checking for email too often.

Then there's your iPod. Oh, I loves my iPod! I use it to make the commute just a little less boring, and using a solar charger to juice it up, instead of plugging it in overnight or charging it through your computer, is a great way to feel green and sustainable while jamming to your tunes!

Now, I have to admit that, owing to a number of issues, I haven't actually purchased a solar charger yet. Yes, I know, BAD GREENIE! Seriously, though, there are a number of factors to think about before you buy one:

• Where do you live?
  If you live in, say, Wisconsin, where there are a lot of days in the winter that don't get sun, you may want to rethink this idea--or be prepared for the fact that you will probably not get to go solar for more than a few days from October to March. If, on the other hand, you live in areas of the southwest, where they get 300-320 days of sun a year, you may be able to go grid-free on your handheld devices year-round.
• How patient are you?
  Many of the lovely small, stick it in your backpack charging units suffer from the lack of available charging surface and can take up to a day of full on sun to charge. Say, for instance, you're hiking in wooded mountains. Don't expect to hook the deployed solar charger to your pack, climb through the forest, and emerge at the top of the mountain with a full battery. If, however, you're setting up a base camp in a nice sunny area and have the time to leave it out and turn it toward the sun occasionally, you could be charged for the week in an afternoon.
• How much do you use your electronics?
  I personally have to recharge my cellphone once every three or four days and my iPod once a week. With that load, a small charger should be sufficient if you get the good sun. If, however, you spend most of your time texting and bopping to Shiny Toy Guns, you're likely to run out of sun juice before you want to.
• How much are you willing to pay?
  Big, serious question. There are tiny little recharging units out there like the simple Solio charger that retail for about $100 dollars, all the way up to the Brunton Solaris 52, which offers 12 watt power capable of running laptops off the sun in realtime, but weighs in at an impressive $1250! In the solar climate here, I'll be going for a lower-cost alternative.

There are a lot of companies out there selling portable solar panels, and I urge you really read up on them if you're going to buy one. I personally think they're a seriously smart idea, given that, as power loads increase and power generation remains the same in the municipal grids, summer is generally a time of brown outs--at least in parts of the United States--so starting your research now will save you time in the long run. And then there's the whole issue of knowing you've got the power to play your tunes when you're out hiking or biking or just playing on the beach with your children!