Electric Vehicle Charging For Schools Our Favorite Not For Profit
61A Good Cause
It’s really great to see so many auto makers embracing electric vehicles and plugin hybrids. Each year at every auto show more manufacturers are showcasing their eco street-cred with their latest offerings and giving us a glimpse of what’s to come. At this point there can be little doubt that our future modes of motorized transportation will be at least somewhat electrified. However, having the auto makers “on board” is obviously only half of the equation, getting the charging infrastructure built and having stations readily available for people to juice up their cars is the other hurdle we need to overcome.
In our other hubs we try to stay away from directly promoting businesses and instead focus on the technologies in an effort to allow for the reader to make up their own minds and form their own opinions. In this particular hub we are going to stray slightly from that rule of thumb in an effort to help out a not-for-profit that we support and we think is capable of making a difference.
The conversion of our transportation sector to EVs and PHEVs provides a classic case of the chicken versus the egg – auto makers will continue to develop and commit more resources to building EVs and PHEVs as the consumer demands cleaner more fuel efficient vehicles, however, the consumer will not embrace those vehicles unless they feel confident that the infrastructure will be in place to accommodate their vehicle charging needs. Depending upon the bells and whistles included in a charging station, they can range in cost from $2,000 to $6,000 installed – and level 3 quick charging stations cost even more, in the $25,000 to $40,000 range!!! Obviously, businesses and property owners aren’t exactly rushing to install charging stations. So, get it… that’s the chicken versus the egg, and the question is, how to fill in that gap? How do we get the charging private infrastructure built that will give the consumer the confidence to buy the vehicle?
Enter our favorite Not For Profit, The School Charging Program – this is an organization whose sole purpose is to raise money to purchase and install EV / PHEV charging stations at schools across the country. There are many reasons to like this organization:
1 you’re supporting green initiatives, makes you feel good, helps us get off of our addiction to fossil fuels, working to save the environment
2 they have a defined goal with verifiable results, install station at one school, move on to the next
3 Supporting and educating our children and encouraging them to be environmentally conscience
The idea here is that students and teachers are the most accepting of new technology, so introducing green technologies to our education institutions will benefit all of us as this industry grows and develops.
Shop To Donate
While there are many different ways to contribute to the organization our personal favorite is through the We-Care: Shop To Donate. Basically you visit School Charging’s website, and follow the instructions to download and install the We-Care plugin for your internet browser. Once activated, any time you shop at a participating online merchant, that merchant will make a small donation to School Charging. See what a fantastic idea this is, you can help contribute without doing anything you wouldn’t normally do – shop online.
I think we’ve made our point and hopefully convinced you that this is an organization worth checking out. Obviously we’re a huge fan of these guys and will do anything we can to help. Follow the link below if you’re interested in learning more.
- School Charging Program :: We-Care Reminder :: Get Started
Direct link to install the We-Care browser plugin for School Charging. - School Charging Not For Profit Electric Vehcile Charging For Schools
Website for the School Charging Program
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As a dog I can do little about what humans do. However, one thing I can do and that I do is to pick up human litter. I've been featured on the Huffington Post, USA Today, as well as numerous other web sites. You can find the links at my web site.
Regarding electric cars. Most humans have simplistic answers to things. Electric cars is a good answer. The logic goes like this.
Electric cars=no gasoline consumption=equal no CO2 pollution=less pollution. Therefore electric cars are good.
It's not quite that simple. Currently about 49 percent of electricity is generated by coal. Also our power grid in the US is running about 100 percent capacity during peak periods. If everyone had an electric car the increase would collapse the grid. And I have yet to see a proponent of electric cars demonstrate the increase electrical consumption to generate electricity to charge vehicles is greater or less than the reduction in the savings in co2 discharge from automobiles.
Also, the components in electric cars require minerals found in rare earth. Currently China produces 90 percent of the rare earth used in the world. Until alternate sources are found electric cars will put us in greater dependency to china than we are currently dependent on oil producing nations.
At this time there is only one publically traded company in the US that is involved in mining rare earth and it has yet to make a profit.
Rare earth is obtained by surface mining and one of the side effects can be the deposit of heavy metals into the soil that can affect humans, animals and plants.
This issue has also not been addressed.
Nice hub. We should all shop to donate. It's a win, win, win for everyone. Charities get support, retailers drive sales and traffic and we get the products we want and the satisfaction of having done a little good in the world.
Max - to address some of your concerns, which are all valid. Yes, the majority of our power does come from coal and there is a certain amount of "trading one dirty fuel for another", however ultimately our goal (nationally and globally) should be to get off of fossil fuels, so the widespread use of electric and hybrid electric cars while not solving the problem right now, will contribute in the future once we become accustomed to an electrified transportation network and more of our power comes from cleaner sources.
Peak energy periods - it has been widely accepted that the vast majority of charging will occur overnight at offpeak times. EVs and Hybrid car users will have their cars plugged in to charge overnight, and when they wake up they will be fully juiced. Day time charging will be mostly "top up".
As for rare earths, China does currently have the highest production, however, Molycorp has the rights and ownership to the vast resources in California. While we are not dependent on China, we do need to concentrate on developing our own resources - which we do have. It is also my understanding that for the most part, the contribution of rare earths is for high performance magnets needed for electric engines. While a necessary component, by far and away not a "deal killer" for EVs and Hybrids - there are alternatives.
There are many obstacles to overcome in developing a clean and renewable energy future taking the steps needed now is less a matter of the change that we make today and more a case of preparing for the future.
stephhicks68 11 months ago
I went to the International Auto Show in Detroit in January. What a great event! Every manufacturer was showcasing electric cars. A few are available now (the Volt, the Leaf) and many in the concept stage.
Organizations like this one are key to building infrastructure to help transition drivers from fuel-based cars to plug-in vehicles. Rated up!