For your information:
I drive a 2006 Prius to which I added a plug-in battery pack in 2009. I commute 28 miles per day, which almost exactly equals the range of the battery pack. (After the battery runs out the car reverts to an ordinary Prius.) In summer I average over 100 mpg and in winter 75 mpg. The engine rarely runs except on warm-up. The car requires little maintenance. After 70,000 miles there is little wear and tear — even the brakes are pristine (because the car slows using its generator.) There were no government incentives applicable (largely because I am subject to the AMT.) The plug-in system consumes 1.8 megawatts of energy per year.
Not long after I added solar panels to my home. The panels produce 4.1 megawatts of electrical energy per year. There were tax and generation incentives. Without the incentives, the panels cost 25 cents per kilowatt hour over their expected lifetime. (MUCH lower, of course, with the incentives.) I live in the Pacific Northwest which is cloudy and rainy for more than half the year, by the way.
At 25 cents per kwh (my “no-incentives” cost) my daily commute costs me 4 cents per mile in electricity generated by my panels. (Because my gas engine runs a bit during warmup there are gasoline costs as well, but marginal.)
By comparison, the total cost of my 2006 car, add-on battery and solar panel system is slightly less than the MSRP of the lowest-priced 2011 Cadillac Escapade SUV — estimated 15 mpg in city driving (23 cents per mile at $3.50. ) My solar system contributes the leftover 2.3 megawatt hours per year to my home use; the Cadillac Escalade would contribute nothing.
By my standards, this pencils out BIG TIME. That’s without any tax or other incentives whatsoever.
There are more than enough reasons to abhor President Obama — there is no need to become overly ideological and rigid about green energy just because Obama happens to advocate it and go about it in a bad way. Being so is just a form of ad hominem.
