December 29th, 2011 () Clean Energy, electric cars › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
OK. I must admit I hate driving but the LEAF has made driving fun again. If you have been following our little holiday adventure and the learning experience we had, you will be glad to know we are back in Knoxville safe and sound. Well, at least my mother, who was keeping Warren for an extended [...]
December 27th, 2011 () Clean Energy, electric cars › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
So we made it to see all the family yesterday. The LEAF is now in Nashville. The trip took a little longer than we planned, about 5.5 hours, including an hour for lunch. We planned for it take a little over 4 hours with the addition of the “charge-up” stops. Driving on the dirty fossil stuff, [...]
December 26th, 2011 () Clean Energy, electric cars › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
So we are taking the trip, yes taking the Nissan LEAF from Knoxville to Nashville, TN, about a 185 mile trip. My last post we talked about the new Fast-Chargers that have been deployed along the interstates in TN as part of the EV Project. The fast chargers, if they are all working will make [...]
December 23rd, 2011 () Clean Energy, electric cars › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
So I plugged the Nissan LEAF into a Blink Level 3- Direct Current (DC) fast charger for the first time today. Cool Stuff! This charger is capable of taking the car from a low state of charge up to 80% of full charge in about 20 mins. Level 2 chargers take 6-8 hrs (using 240 volts, [...]
December 13th, 2011 () Coal, High Risk Energy › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
National Public Radio’s Morning Edition ran a story today on how Southern Company is putting its corporate policy of aggressively fighting beneficial health standards ahead of mothers and children, as well as fish and other living organisms. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new standards to limit emissions of mercury, a toxic heavy metal, and [...]
November 23rd, 2011 () electric cars, Media Roundup › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
I sent the following letter to National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition, I got a form response. It appears to be regular occurrence on NPR’s Morning Edition to say negative things about electric cars. NPR’s November 21st story focused on the negative aspects of electric vehicles (EVs) and failed to point out some important factual [...]
October 21st, 2011 () Clean Energy › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
Knoxville’s 2011 Solar Home Tour is October 22. SACE is excited about this year’s annual tour, and welcomes the recent expansion of solar energy development in east Tennessee. I am especially excited to offer my home as one of the stops along the tour. Our objective is to have a net-zero home, and between our [...]
October 17th, 2011 () Clean Fuel, electric cars, Offshore Drilling › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
I wanted to share my first impression after driving the Nissan LEAF for the past couple of weeks. While it may be quixotic to think we can ever truly drive “guilt free,” the zero-emissions LEAF certainly is a step in the right direction. By charging the LEAF at non-peak hours to level off energy load demands [...]
October 6th, 2011 () Clean Fuel › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › 3 Comments
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is very happy to have received our long-awaited 2011 Nissan LEAF. SACE is part of the The EV Project in Tennessee. Staff at our Knoxville, Tennessee office will be writing about their experiences using the LEAF, so stay tuned to hear more about how this new technology can fit [...]
September 26th, 2011 () Climate Action, Nuclear › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › 1 Comment
Each year, starting in 1989, an annual report titled, “Our Changing Planet” has been produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and submitted to Congress. The USGCRP also conducts the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which has been previously completed in 2000 and 2009. The assessment serves as a “status report” on the latest [...]