That’s my friend, Dency Nelson, with his EV RAV4 at last year’s EPN Energy Fair. Dency charges his plug-in electric car using the clean, renewable energy he produces from the solar panels on the roof of his Hermosa Beach house.
Dency’s house is just one of 7 houses you can tour on tomorrow’s EPN Solar Homes Tour which you can check out on the EPN’s fabulous new web site.
They’re each great examples of how well solar works here in the South Bay, but only Dency’s house will feature your Creative Greenius as a volunteer docent. I’m just saying… 
Here’s a cool, custom interactive Google Map I created showing all 7 EPN Solar Homes Tour locations:
Or you can download a PDF flyer with all info by CLICKING HERE.
Manhattan Beach is teaming up with the Environmental Priorities Network to feature five solar powered homes on their Manhattan Beach Solar Homes Tour the same day. You can download the flyer for the homes on their tour by CLICKING HERE.
I hope to see you at our very own local SolarFest tomorrow!
Creative Greenius 
How far are we from having solar panels on our home and using the energy to charge our electric vehicles. Is it just a cost issue at this point? Obviously we have the technology already.
The Greenius:
There’s nothing stopping you from going solar right and it’s never been easier or more affordable. The price of panels dropped big time this year, by over 40%. And there’s also the 30% federal tax credit. And depending on where you live there are also rebates from your state or city.
It has indeed been a cost issue up till now, but it’s becoming far less of one. In California, AB 811 will have loan money flowing this summer to make it even more affordable.
As for the EV cars, I have three different friends who generate their home’s electricity via their solar PV panels and use that clean renewable power to charge up their RAV 4-EVs, some of the few electric cars offered for sale in the last decade. They only offered a handful of these Toyota EVs and they were quickly snapped up. But they’ve been a huge success with the owners who love them and have put over 100,000 miles on many of them. They could have sold a million of those RAV 4’s if Toyota didn’t have it’s head up its own ass all these years.
But the Leaf is on the way, so is the Volt and so are a whole slew of other EVs and plug-in hybrids. They’ll be expensive to start with, but there’s a $7500 tax credit available for many of them. The challenge will be getting one. Very few will be available this year and then a few more in 2011 and more still in 2012.