Utah's National Park Electric Corridor.
It's a start. http://www.utahbusiness.com/utahs-national-park-electric-vehicle-corridor-kicks-off-two-chargers/
Forum Discussion
As to why lead based batteries are still in such heavy use, it's because they are very economical, and they just plain work well in a wide range of conditions. Remember, in the early days of the automobile, electric ruled. It was the shortcomings of batteries that resulted in the gas engine becoming the norm, and unfortunately, it's still the shortcomings of batteries that are keeping electric vehicles, self sufficient homes etc. from being a good choice for most.
A lot of my neighbors have had solar installed on their roofs due to the large subsidy available right now. In fact, Utah has the second highest per capita solar installed in the nation. Unfortunately, virtually all these homes are a grid tie system without the ability to operate independently should the grid go down. Keeping the cost down also requires net metering which is a method of forcing other grid users to subsidize the solar systems operating costs. Currently the cost of building the generation and distribution of the grid is built into the cost of the power. As more and more solar comes on line, the methodology of billing will have to change so that the folks running solar actually pay the actual costs of the services they are provided from the grid.
A lot of my neighbors have had solar installed on their roofs due to the large subsidy available right now. In fact, Utah has the second highest per capita solar installed in the nation. Unfortunately, virtually all these homes are a grid tie system without the ability to operate independently should the grid go down. Keeping the cost down also requires net metering which is a method of forcing other grid users to subsidize the solar systems operating costs. Currently the cost of building the generation and distribution of the grid is built into the cost of the power. As more and more solar comes on line, the methodology of billing will have to change so that the folks running solar actually pay the actual costs of the services they are provided from the grid.
