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Green power generation

1011 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  nliwilson, 
N
One key problem for me with running an EV is that my home electricity supply comes from Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in Derbyshire, England, which is coal fired, so even if I run an EV I'm still driving a fossil fuel powered car.

Here in the UK there are various local and national government grant initiatives to help with the cost of individual home alternative power generation such as mini wind turbines and solar panels. The problem with home alternative power generation is that the technologies currently available only produce a small amount of supplementary power for the average home. It seems logical (to me) to have a mini wind turbine and solar panels fitted to my garage to supplement the power supply to charge an EV.


So my questions are has anyone tried using supplementary power sources specifically for charging an EV and what where the results? And has anyone in the UK tried applying for a grant specifically to supplement the power supply to their garage and what response did you get?
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Woodsmith
It may be worth you having a read of this thread on the Battery vehicle Society forum.
http://www.batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2509

Possibly charging your car directly wouldn't be effective unless you leave your car plugged in while the sun is shining.
You would be better off selling the electricity to the grid while you are out and about and then buying back what you need when you are charging.
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N
Thanks for the link, that's interesting. :)
The home power generation systems I've seen offered all use some form of power storage so excess power can be used as and when, but IMHO selling excess power to the grid isn't a bad idea, it's just a shame more people don't take up the grants and do just that. :\
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