March 2010 EV and PV Report

Spring is here and the solar panels are starting to produce the juice. In March, our little PV system generated 294 kWh. That is enough to run a CFL for nearly 200,000 hours. Since its late 2007 installation, our system has generated a total of 8.1 megawatt-hours. We passed the 8MWh milestone on March 21st, the 2nd day of Spring here in the northern hemisphere.

For my EV driving, I logged 472 miles in the Chevy S10 EV, using an estimated 300kWh. This is nearly equivalent to what the panels produced. This means that, as it continues to get sunnier and the days get longer throughout the summer, we'll be generating more power than the EV driving uses.

The big new in electric vehicle for March is that Nissan announced the price of the LEAF. It is $32,780. However, there is a $7500 federal tax credit bringing the price to 25,280. And additional state incentives are offered in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, & Utah. In my state of Oregon the incentive is $1500, bringing the price to $23,780. In California, the state incentive is $5000 making this 100 mile range EV only $20,280. That is cheaper than a Prius and far cheaper to "fill up".