A Geek Goes Flying

June 11, 2026:  Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time . “Data released on Wednesday by the global energy thinktank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (Seia) and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said. Coal supplied 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever.” I’d buy that for a dollar. Green energy collage Of course, other countries are ahead of us. Germany has, on occasion, supplied all of its electrical demand using renewables, at least as far back as May 17, 2016 (“If only for a brief while, the country was almost entirely powered by solar and wind–and the grid didn’t collapse”). Meanwhile, I’d still love to have something like the GoSun EV Solar Charger for truly off-grid capability. With everything I tote these days being ...

I don’t have time to do a deep dive on this, but this LA Times article struck me:  Gas prices are widening the wealth gap between wealthy and poor Americans  (May 7, 2026). Key take-away: “Lower-income Americans sharply reduced their gas consumption in the month following the Iran war, yet spiking prices still forced them to spend more at the pump, worsening the economy’s economic disparities...” This is likely especially true in California, as I ruminated on yesterday . But it doesn’t have to be that way. The price for electricity hasn’t really moved, even with everything going on. I mean, yeah, it’s trending upwards, nationally it’s gone up (for residential customers) about 38% in the last ~10 years , from $.1255 to $.1730 per kilowatt hour. But, e.g., for the Solterra, that’s a difference of about $3.09 to “fill up” from 10% SOC to 90% SOC. That is a far cry from the leap in gas prices we’ve seen just from the Iran conflict, which shot up ~50% in just two months², and ...

Discussion I had with a friend recently... California gas prices have hit $7/gallon in some places , even as high as almost $8 at at least one station . Growing up in the 90s, gas in the midwest was generally under $1.00/gallon, often as low as $.79/gallon. Pretty much the only way I was able to stay flush delivering Chinese food, when a $5 tip was memorable. But I digress. Even in SoCal, gas dipped below $1.00/gallon as recently as as 1998 , only to surge to around $2.00/gallon by spr surge to around $2.00/gallon by spring of 2000 . Outside of like a global pandemic, they’ve never gone back down, really, though they’ve occasionally shot up much higher. June 2008 or so, adjusted for inflation , gas prices were in the $6-7 range in California . But why? I find this interesting; how little things have changed, despite multiple governors (including – ostensibly – a Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger, from 2003–2011): California Attorney General Bill Lockyear investigated accusations of pri...

Iran war shows "era of fossil fuel security is over," says U.K. official, defying Trump calls for North Sea drilling : The era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age. — U.K. energy secretary Ed Miliband [ statement ] High Gas Prices Are Tempting Americans Back to EVs : Car-shopping platforms such as Cars.com and Edmunds say they have seen an uptick in EV interest as Americans adjust to life with gas over $4 a gallon, while auto executives say a renewed focus on fuel efficiency could mark the bottom of the EV meltdown. Edmunds said shopper consideration of EVs on its website has risen nearly to what it was before tax incentives ended last year. 🤞 Once you go EV, you don’t go back: Study finds 96% of owners plan to stay electric : ( EV Owner Satisfaction Climbs to New High Amid Sales Slump, JD Power Finds ): Nearly all EV owners would stick with electric for their next vehicle, a new study found. With improvements in battery tech...

California now has more EV charging ports than gas nozzles . And now  Walmart's Plan To Blanket The US With The Walmart EV Charging Network . That has the potential to be huge. Nine months into using an EV as my only vehicle, including a couple of road trips, and, well, so far so good. Looks like things are getting better all the time. At least in this west coast blue state. Then there’s the hostility of places like North Carolina . Sigh. Solterra charging at Disneyland

Had company in from Texas, where they’re a wine club member of Graveyard . They wanted to visit the California location, which is in Paso Robles. It’s been a while since I’ve been up that far, and my Lab was craving a beach trip, and so I fired up A Better Route Planner ‡ and it seemed feasible. The original plan is below. But, you know ...  Anyway. Some errands and a lack of EV charging availability at the local public garage had us starting the trip at 89% charge, estimated range 175 miles. We left at 9:22 a.m., instead of 8:45 a.m., because Daylight Saving Time threw off my normal wakeup time and neither of us thought to set an alarm. (No big deal, I built in buffers.) Leg one was a straight shot up the 405 to the 101 to Hendry’s Beach, 98 miles, 1 hour 36 minutes expected travel time. We ended up arriving at 10:56, 1 hour 34 minutes later. Using adaptive cruise control in moving traffic, we averaged about 3.1 m/kWh for that leg, and arrived with 39% State of Charge (SOC) and 7...

This trip took a lot more than I thought it would... I got started a little later than I had originally planned, leaving West LA around 11:20 a.m., with a 98% state of charge (SOC) and 197 miles estimated range [with 3,821 on the odometer] . The plan for the trip, worked up using PlugShare, was to drive 126 miles to Rancho Mirage Marketplace, DCFC to 80% there, drive another 130 miles to Love’s Travel Stop Quartzsite, another charge to 80%, another 111 miles to Palm Valley Crossing in Goodyear, and then I’d be about 10 miles from my destination. Apple Maps was saying it was a 5 hour, 34 minute trip there (nonstop direct), and I figured, recharging to 80% twice en route would add a bit more than an hour to that trip time. After all, Subaru claims the 2024 Solterra’s “high-capacity lithium-ion battery charges from 10% to 80% as quickly as 35 minutes.” 🤣 ... 😡 By 1:20 p.m. I had made decent time, averaging 2.9 m/kWh with a fair amount of climbing (about 2500'), and using the cruise...

From Los Angeles to the Big Bear Mountain Resorts (Snow Summit specifically). Snow Summit winter trail map Bought parking in advance to park near the base, vs. having to get shuttled in from a remote lot. $40. Going up the mountain is about 110 miles and the Solterra is currently estimating it has a 192 mile range on 100% charge (outside temps in the high 50s, low 60s, °F). There are limited charging options in Big Bear, so I’m planning on charging to 80% at a DCFC before starting the climb. Using PlugShare, I found a municipal charging facility run by ChargePoint that is reported to have three (3) 62 kW CCS1 stations at $.35/kWh, which should match the Solterra more or less perfectly (I occasionally see 100 kW at higher speed charging stations, but that eventually settles into something around 50 kW).  That’s about 80 miles from my starting location – at 3.0 m/kWh for planning purposes, I should arrive with at least 50% state of charge (SOC) (I’m going to say 60%). Bumping back t...

This wasn’t a very typical weekend, but it wasn’t exactly unusual, so I thought I’d write it up to give a glimpse into what a real world weekend was like with a relatively limited range Solterra. There were other options than the ones I chose (e.g., I could have swung by the office to charge, or found a DCFC station), but these pieces fit together neatly enough. This is with a 2024 Subaru Solterra Limited, and I don’t currently have the option of charging at home. Friday I topped the car off at the office, charging to 100%, so, starting with a range of ~200 miles (temperature highs in the mid-60s, cooler at night, SoCal “winter”). That night, took my houseguests to dinner. Total driving about 11 miles. Didn’t record the State of Charge (“SOC”) because it didn’t matter, but it was probably down maybe 5%. ~190 miles remaining. Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Knott’s Berry Farm (where there are no chargers), probably doing 75+ mph to keep up with traffic. Call it 31 miles, a...

Before taking the plunge with the Solterra, I “auditioned” several battery powered electric vehicles (BEVs or EVs), over long weekends or a week (or more) as rentals. I’ve come a long way since my first Tesla Model 3 rental in ... 2021? I had no idea what the big bulky CCS1 cable was at one DCFC charging station. (That rental came with a J1772 to NACS adapter, but nothing for the bigger DC equipment.) The first day or two I had the Tesla I was trying to charge it at Disneyland (which has ChargePoint J1772 level 2 chargers) and couldn’t figure out why it was only charging to 50% (the car had been limited to that charge level in settings; an easy fix once I figured it out, but when I asked on reddit, the overwhelming response was just “use a SuperCharger, ChargePoint sucks!” – not really helpful...). I’m sure I didn’t know how to read things like kilowatt capability, or grok things like shared chargers splitting available power between two charging cars. I got frustrated dealing w...