Charge Your Electric Car for Free with the Sun
Santa Rosa, California, United States September 3, 2008

More and more people are talking about using solar panels in conjunction with electric cars. This is why we were excited to read about a ZAP Xebra customer in Colorado who is getting a free ride by charging from the sun.

Denver CBS affiliate's story "Solar Powered 'Zap Zebra' Virtually Free To Drive" reports how Xebra owner Bill Blanning uses 34 solar panels between his house and garage to generate all his electricity. The solar array actually generates more power than his house can use, so he uses the extra power to charge his Xebra.

We have a slogan that ZAP stands for Zero Air Pollution. Obviously, Zero Air Pollution is a noble ideal, because, let's face it, there is precious little on this beautiful earth that is truly zero-emission. A rock? (Some would probably argue that it does).

California law has designated certain forms of transportation as zero-emission, including electric cars and other alternative fuels. As some are quick to point out, it takes energy to make energy and the energy produced to power electric cars does not truly equate to "zero-emissions." However, when factoring in power plant emissions, California reports that EVs are 90% cleaner than the average new gasoline vehicle. While electric vehicles are not truly Zero Air Pollution in many instances, they do come closer to realizing the ideal of zero-emissions.

The reason why we love solar powered electric cars is that photovoltaic energy is energy derived from the sun, a vast, renewable resource. If you studied this issue to the Nth degree you might go so far as to research the embodied energy in solar panels and say that it causes pollution to make the solar panels. But one of the things we love about solar-electric cars is that this is a way to truly begin approaching the ideal of Zero Air Pollution, or ZAP, which we believe is a good thing to stand for these days.

Source: Zap