The Solar Living Institute, home of Real Goods (one of the first Green Catalogs), is like a big, green playground. The 12 acre plot was developed as a demonstration site for renewable and clean technologies like solar and wind power, green building and permaculture. We were excited to be able to spend some time on the campus while participating in a workshop on how to build an electric vehicle. Although the workshop turned out to be a wee bit overwhelming, we felt we got a pretty good primer into the world of electric vehicles. That said, we encourage y’all to take a workshop or class on some of these green ideas. Meeting people and gathering resources for getting started on this stuff is a good motivator for really making change.
Runtime- 4:25
Technorati Tags: real goods, hopland, solar living institute, electric car, ev, solar, ryanishungry
I don’t think that you can sum-up how-to build electric cars in one session or lecture. If electric cars are cheaper, faster or average rating then I would definitely buy one but big oil mafia don’t want that to happen so 4 bucks a gallon is only choice. If the price of gas keep rising like this then I would end up on two wheel bike. eh!
hey sharuk
yeah, it’s hard to cover the whole subject in one session.
jay and i are thinking of joining some electric car meet ups in our area to get some more knowledge.
but you seem to be thinking along the right lines- if gas gets higher, we’ll all be riding bikes, no doubt!
cheers!
thanks for the comment
Cool vid. I’m wondering if building your own electric is street legal yet, or if you have to take your chances like a lot of the biofuel conversions. Cheers!
-Drew
hey andrew!
our teacher assured us that most of the vehicles were street legal, if done properly
though most of the people at the DMV, judging from other people’s stories, don’t quite know what to make of them!
I have to correct the speaker. People in Arizona do NOT pay $2 or any amount to park in the shade, ever. The only places people pay for parking are in downtown multi-story parking structures, where the only solar panel placement would maybe be on the roof. That or parking meters on the downtown streets, but those don’t have shades built over them. There are also a few uncovered, for-pay lots downtown. Arizonans are highly resistant to paying for anything related to their cars including toll roads. People will pay for parking if there isn’t any free parking nearby, but I doubt they’d pay extra for shade. So making that concept a reality would have to be presented as “you pay for parking, and as a bonus it’s covered parking that is generating solar power for the city that lowers costs for taxpayers.”