California Center for Sustainable Energy

Upon further thought, however, the problem still wasn’t solved. Although electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, the vehicles need to be charged, and the energy often comes from carbon emitting power plants. In other words, these vehicles are just passing their carbon emissions on to another source.

Dickey addressed this issue by generating his own clean and renewable energy. He had a solar photovoltaic system installed on the rooftop of his garage, which is now providing not only all the electricity his home requires, but also enough power to charge his car.

Dickey is only one of many Californians who have jumped on the solar powered bandwagon. Stephen Weitz, of Northern California, is also using solar photovoltaic to charge his electric truck after researching a variety of alternative fuel choices. “A biofuel internal combustion engine, as a solution for global warming, is not as good as an electric vehicle because large amounts of soluble nitrogen are produced just due to the combustion process,” said Weitz. According to Weitz, ethanol and biodiesel fuels also utilize internal combustion engines. The combustion process , takes harmless nitrogen and converts it into a toxic soup of green house gasses that fill the air, albeit at a smaller ratio than regular combustion engines. For this reason, Weitz opted for an electric vehicle.

Southern Californians have the sun as a resource they can utilize if they decide a carbon free vehicle is right for them. The California Center for Sustainable Energy not only allocates incentives to people who invest in electric vehicles through the Fueling Alternatives ^SM Program, but also offers incentives to people who install solar PV systems through the California Solar Initiative.