Earlier this year, Motorcars Honda in Cleveland Heights was selected as Green Energy Ohio's "Business of the Year" for installing a state of the art 335 kW solar canopy system, the largest single covered solar structure of its kind at a dealership in the country.

Tom Rapini's yellow Honda 600 next to his photo voltaic array.

The solar panels at the dealership reduced the dealership's carbon footprint by an amount that is the equivalent of the carbon generated by the vehicles the dealership sells in a year, every year moving forward. The panels reduce the dealership's grid-based energy needs by 50 to 75 percent, depending on the season, while producing 1.3 megawatt hours of electricity per day, or enough to power approximately 40 homes.

Now, Green Energy Ohio is asking consumers to follow the example set by Motorcars Honda.

The organization is hosting a talk on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Mentor Senior Center to help educate consumers on the affordability and practicality of photovoltaic arrays, especially when used to charge electric vehicles. The event is free and open to the public.

"The talk will cover solar power in general," says Tom Rapini, a Mentor resident who is also a member of Green Energy Ohio, "but we will also discuss the long term payback of photovoltaics, especially when you add in the drop in price of solar panels and if you calculate in the savings from not buying gasoline by charging and driving an electric vehicle."

Rapini, who is one of the speakers at the event, knows first hand about what it takes to both charge and drive an electric vehicle. An engineer who was educated at the University of Akron and later worked at such prestigious organizations like Allen-Bradley, General Dynamics and Firestone, Rapini not only built his own electric vehicle, he also built the solar array that helps power it.

"First of all, I'd like to stress that it doesn't take en engineer to build and use a photovoltaic array," says Rapini, who now runs a small organic farm and a food cooperative in Mentor. "Any one can do it. There are at least five of us in this area who have electric vehicles who are also charging them with a photovoltaic array."

Rapini's fascination with electric vehicles began when he worked at a golf course as a teenager.

"I was the one who serviced the electric golf carts," Rapini recalls. "I have been passionate about green energy all of my life; from bicycling to wind power to solar energy.

"This talk is an educational event to help people realize that this technology is available and that it works in Ohio. Just look at what Motorcars Honda has done. The technology not only works, but it also makes economic sense."

Rapini's push toward a futuristic world of zero emission, zero fossil fuel transportation started back in 1991. He sought the smallest vehicle he could find, a Honda 600, and bought it from an owner in Chardon. He converted it to electric only operation, finishing the project in 1993. However, that first vehicle only had a range of about ten miles.

Since then, Rapini has been through three different bodies, repurposing old junkers and transforming them into electric vehicles. He transfers the electric drive unit from one vehicle to the next and improves the technology every step of the way. This past spring, Rapini invested in lithium-ion batteries, improving his current yellow Honda 600's electric range to a very respectable 70 miles.

"I don't have my high speed charging system wired in yet, but when I get it done it will improve my charge time from discharge to charge in less than three hours," he adds.

Currently, a typical charge can take as long as 12 hours, which means charging overnight.

With the increased presence of electric vehicles on our local roads, the infrastructure and technology needed to recharge is dropping drastically. New DC fast charging stations could reduce recharging times to as little as 30 minutes or less in the very near future.

If you'd like to learn more about the use of solar energy to reduce your electric bill, or how to use it to charge an electric vehicle for true zero carbon based transportation, visit the Mentor Senior Center next Thursday for Green Energy Ohio's presentation.