RIDE FOR RENEWABLES UPDATE

EV Tow, Solar House, and a Sheriff for New Energy
Tom Weis, October 26-30, 2010 (Ride for Renewables blog)

October 26-27; Illinois (Riding his electric-assist bike from Colorado to Washington, D.C., to call for 100% renewable electricity in the U.S. by 2020)

"As I was preparing to head out this morning for Champaign, via Clinton, got a call… warning me about extreme weather…Was expecting something small like a Nissan Leaf [for a tow]. Instead, I was looking at a cross between a silver DeLorean (complete with gull wings) and the Batmobile…this was “Seven,” the electric car he and six other team members had spent the past three years building to compete for a $5 million prize at the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE competition. In June, their homemade, 4 seat, 3155 pound electric vehicle achieved 182 MPGe on a 134-mile run at Michigan International Speedway. Talk about American ingenuity.

"So we loaded up the trike, picked up team member, George, and hit the road for Champaign. “Seven” gets 200 miles on a single charge (twice the range of the much-touted Tesla), and I’m happy to report successfully transported 3 adults, a rocket trike, and a trailer 100+ miles to Champaign. This is likely a world record, as none of us has ever heard of an electric car accomplishing such a feat. Whoever thinks electric cars lack for power just needs to ride in one. To demonstrate, Kevin peeled rubber as we headed down the road…"

Seven (click to enlarge)

October 28; Illinois

"…headed over to the University of Illinois campus in the afternoon to check out the 2009 solar decathalon house…"

October 29; Illinois

"…a beautiful day for riding…spotted a huge wind project on the horizon to the north and made tracks for it. I was soon pedaling through a massive wind project, with hundreds of turbines dotting the landscape, as the sun began to drop. The setting sun, behind all those slowly rotating wind turbines, under a pale blue sky with wispy white clouds turning pastel pink, was a postcard perfect moment…"

Tom's wind project and a fan (click to enlarge)

"…[later] it was not only pitch black, but I was riding on a section of newly constructed black asphalt with no painted stripes and no shoulder (ironically built by a wind company), so it was hard to discern where the asphalt ended and a sharp, nasty drop-off began. Got a little too close to the edge at one point and over we went. Fortunately, it was a soft, grassy landing and the trike didn’t roll. Crawled out of the cockpit to survey the damage, fearing the worst. Not a scrape on the trike, which was lying on its side, and just a few small ones on me…chilled and still soaking wet from sweating all day…the Sheriff’s Office…proposed storing my trike, charging the battery up over night, and driving me up the road to the next town where there was a hotel…Indiana’s Benton County Sheriff’s Department truly personifies the motto 'protect and serve.'"

October 30; Illinois

"The morning began with a knock at my door by the Benton County Sheriff’s Department. It was my ride. Deputy Don Munson was there to drive me back to Fowler to pick up my trike. On the way, we got to talking about all the wind farms in the area and he remembered where the wind farm I helped get off the ground years ago was located. Problem was, it was considerably north of Fowler, and I didn’t have the time (or the energy, after last night) to pedal all the way up there and back from Fowler. Without missing a beat, he turned down a side road and headed north. So I got to visit my old wind project, courtesy of the Sheriff’s Department…"