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Re: all the stuff here about EVs...  1 Saabers Like This Post!
Posted by Scott Paterson [Email]  (#13)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Scott Paterson) on Mon, 9 Feb 2026 16:18:38
In Reply to: all the stuff here about EVs..., vtsnaab  [Profile/Gallery]
, Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:34:34
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I have to agree with a lot of what you said. Burning coal to charge your EV doesn't seem like such a great solution and the batteries are made from rare earth minerals and don't recycle well. I was duped by the plastic industry into thinking plastic gets recycle when really only about 5% of it gets recycled (even admitted by Greenpeace (New Greenpeace Report: Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street). Aluminum and glass fare a lot better. We need better nuclear options (small modular reactors and fusion) and battery options like perhaps sodium-based. Hydrogen is also a good one. I have pre-ipo investments in Hydrogen cell power and my Hyrdogen ETF share are doing very well. While I am not a fan of Elon Musk really (although I am fan of all the money my Telsa shares have made rising from $12.50 to $417 as of today. I finally sold a bunch in 2025 at $410 and above); Elon Musk believes strongly in the future of solar and I agree with him.
"Elon Musk has expressed strong support for solar power, suggesting that Spain should build a massive solar array to potentially power all of Europe. He believes that the U.S. could be powered by just 100 square miles of solar panels, emphasizing that this is "not hard" to achieve. Additionally, Musk's solar ambitions have faced challenges, but he remains a proponent of solar energy as a viable solution to meet energy needs."
Solar is growing rapidly. China is making the most gains which is important for them considering the air pollution they are suffering. They are now the world's leader in production at 610,000MW vs the US's 140,000MW in second place. Neither is in the top 20 of % power coming from solar with China at 3.83% and US at 3.75%. Japan, Germany, and India round out the top 5. Some countries are as high as 25% solar powered. Neither
The top 20 are:
Cook Islands: 25%
Yemen: 15.38%
Vanuatu: 14.29%
Chile: 12.08%
Australia: 11.66%
Jordan: 11.65%
Hungary: 10.59%
Vietnam: 10.53%
Honduras: 10.25%
Spain: 9.85%
Luxembourg: 9.60%
Netherlands: 9.40%
Cyprus: 9.28%
Greece: 9.26%
Italy: 8.73%
El Salvador: 8.65%
Malta: 8.54%
Japan: 8.46%
Reunion: 8.45%
Germany: 8.38%
California ranks #1 out of all 50 states for solar production which isn't really surprising considering its size and south-western location. Texas, Florida, Arizona are 2nd, 3rd and 4th which is also not surprising but North Carolina in 5th is a little more so... What is amazing is the California is ahead of even the Cook Islands with 34% of the states' electrical usage coming from Solar generation. California has been working aggressively on its battery storage of daytime solar power generation which is what helps a lot with this number. If you include energy sources deemed as "Clean Energy", those would include: Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Biomass, Hydro, and Nuclear (you can argue about nuclear waste if you want to and past nuclear leakage disaster, I won't disagree, but have felt for a long-time that we aren't going to get "there" without nuclear sources), California is covering 67% of its electrical usage from these sources. Most of the rest comes from burning natural gas.
The problem in our area of California is PG&E, the power company, keeps reducing the amount they pay for residential solar generation. When we first put solar panels on our house in 2002, we were getting a 4X credit for energy we sent back to the grid... Now in 2026, it has been reduced to less than 1X... So it is worth WAY MORE for me to putting it into my EV rather than back to the grid. I'm not a Bitcoin fan in the slightest (I actually hate it despite having bought in for 2% of my personal investment portfolio which has grown to around 10%!! Yikes!), but I use some of my extra power for tech geeking on some Bitcoin miners that run for free. It's like playing a lottery every 10 minutes, LOL.
I'm hoping for fusion... that would be good. I never thought I'd go from a stick/gas car to an automatic/EV, but I'm a fan now. The car really drives well. Tons of power, and I've finally just grown out of my stick-shifting... I loved stick shift RPM control, but I guess I'm just an older driver now, haha...
I love the science experiment part of my solar. The neat thing is I've done about half of my own installation while learning more about it.
-Scott
_______________________________________ Saabnet.com Webmaster Saabs Owned: 1973 Saab Sonett III (Current) 1983 Saab 900 Turbo 1985 Saab 900 Sedan 1990 Saab 900 1992 Saab 900S 1999 Saab 9-3 Turbo 2005 Saab 9-2X Aero (RIP 95K/Accident-guy ran stop sign) 2005 Saab 9-2X Aero (Current) 2007 Saab 9-3 SportCombi 2010 Saab 9-3X Wagon Winner 1996 Saab Owners Convention Rally Novice Class Winner 1999 Saab Owners Convention Rally (All Classes) Also Founder of two non-profits: Poverty2Prosperity.org RunClubMenloPark.org
, Sun, 1 Feb 2026 14:49:51
1, Tue, 10 Feb 2026 09:21:24, Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:34:34, Mon, 9 Feb 2026 16:18:38 <-- Viewing This Message11, Mon, 9 Feb 2026 15:02:12
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