Big Solar and Big Hydro!

Hi friends,

We just hit our half-way mark tonight as we arrived at Chula Vista, California, which is just south of San Diego. We've officially gone coast to coast and just passed 5,000 miles on the trip odometer. We also experienced the lovely 108 degree heat in the Mojave Desert this afternoon as we stopped to stretch our legs!

On Monday we stopped to gawk at the Grand Canyon, because of course you can't go through Arizona without seeing the Grand Canyon! We parked and walked along the south rim trail at the top for a while, then returned to the car to find people taking pictures of the Beetle and getting some video. Everywhere we go people love to ask about the car!

Yesterday we drove to visit the Hoover Dam in Nevada, which is one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the U.S. I figured if you're going to make a video about hydroelectric dams in the U.S., it's hard to beat the Hoover Dam for sheer size and magnificence! We got some interview time with one of the tour guides at the dam, then we all took the official tour and got lots of great video. The dam generates 2,080 megawatts (the big wind turbine at Holy Name High School in Worcester, Massachusetts that we made a video about generates 2/3 of a megawatt, just for a comparison) We had to get special permission to film at Hoover Dam and we were grateful to have some one-on-one time with the tour guide for an interview - a unique opportunity that will make a great video!

Last night we drove the Beetle down Las Vegas Boulevard to check out "the strip" all lit up and teeming with people. I can see where all that power from Hoover Dam goes to... It was great to cruise the strip, veggie-style, and we got many waves and thumbs-up as we drove along taking in the sights.

Today we got a very special tour of Nevada Solar One, which is a concentrated solar power facility in Boulder City. It's rows and rows of long mirrored troughs with a pipe suspended overhead, and the sun reflects off the mirrored troughs, concentrated on the overhead pipe. The liquid in the pipe is heated to 750 degrees from the intense sunlight and is piped to a steam generator to run a turbine. Nevada Solar One generates about 70 megawatts, and they estimate that 10 square miles of concentrated solar power would generate enough electricity to power the entire U.S.! It's a sight to behold, being among the rows and rows of giant mirrored troughs. Nevada Solar One is not open to public tours, but we managed to get a personal tour with the plant manager, who took us out to the field and talked with Carrick about concentrated solar power. This video will be a great example of highlighting a proven renewable technology that can be scaled up on a massive level, but yet few people have heard of it.

We were forewarned by someone last night that California is a little nutty about people driving their cars on vegetable oil, and because of our stickers on the car we might get pulled over and fined. The state is especially concerned that veggie car drivers are not paying their road fuel taxes and they will charge a fine based on how much un-taxed fuel they estimated you've used. How on earth can they figure that out? How could they even prove that I am running veg oil anyway? The stickers are staying put and I'll take my chances thanks!

One of our interviews have made it into a podcast! I passed along the audio from our interview with Cliff Etheridge from the wind farm in Roscoe, Texas to Stephen Lacey at the Inside Renewable Energy podcast, and he was able to use it in this week's show! You can listen to the show by clicking this link (or visit www.renewableenergyworld.com and follow the podcast links) It will probably be a few months before our video is ready so here is a sneak preview, plus it's Carrick's first interview on a podcast!

We've had a few interview requests denied after many emails and phone calls. We were hoping to visit Aptera Motors while in San Diego but the official word is no. With plans to distribute our eco-video series to schools nationally, it's kind of hard to believe it's not worth just*a*little of their time for that kind of audience. I may be able to use some stock footage but that's not very interesting. While I will still probably mention the companies, I won't be able to profile them in their own videos as planned.


Reader question: What keeps your younger son (Gareth) going on this trip, being probably too young to be stimulated by all the environmental technology questions you and Carrick are pursuing?
Answer: Gareth (age 6) has joined us for some of the tours where there are interesting things to see, but otherwise Jen takes him out to walk around or visit a playground, or sometimes they hang out with the Macbook inside where it's nice and cool, and poke around online.

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org