The following column is written by Anna Dreiling, a University of Denver student who has been interning at SolarChargedDriving.Com for the past two months.

I admit it: I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I came into this internship at SolarChargedDriving.com, and I definitely didn’t know what my opinions on it would be.

I can’t say I had ever looked into anything having to do with solar-charged EVs before I took it on… (Okay, I admit it: I didn’t even know exactly what an “EV” was!) I didn’t know where to start, and I certainly didn’t know any of the technical lingo that was thrown around so freely.

I power my BMW Electric Mini-E with solar energy. I drive on sunshine.

My overall home solar system size is 7.5kw and that system powers both our home and car. It is a balanced energy use and energy generation solution: We generate 11,700 kWh a year and we use 11,700 kWh per year.

In the U.S., each kW of a solar PV system costs approximately $3,700 when part of an average sized residential system. The space required for that one kW is about 60 square feet, or about half the size of a small bedroom.

In California and other sunshine states, that one kW will generate approximately 1,550 kWh of electricity annually. A typical solar PV warranty is 25 years. And you can generate 38,750 kWh over those 25 years.

Quick-draw critics of the electric car often criticize EVs because, in their words, “Electric cars simply replace a tailpipe with a smokestack.”

The gist of their argument is that emissions still occur, not at the tailpipe but at the electric power plant. That observation is usually followed by the statement that 45% of our grid electricity is powered by coal and coal is dirty. Thus, the EV supposedly provides no net gain.

The critics may want to look in the mirror -- or in their garage.

Hurricane Irene. [Photo Credit: NOAA]

As I sit here writing this, cleanup crews are winding their way through my neighborhood picking up the broken branches left by Hurricane Irene.

Just this year, millions of people in the U.S. and around the world have directly experienced intense storms or intense drought. Anybody in Vermont or Texas, anybody along the Mississippi, anybody in Australia, Thailand, or Columbia, and anybody who was along the path of a tornado knows this.

But many people do not know, or do not want to believe, that we are “loading the dice” and making extreme weather more frequent. I suppose some people think this is a far-off problem that we can worry about later.