Tracking Clean Energy in Colorado

We were very excited to learn about a new IOS application that will soon also be an Android app. It is called ChargeBug and puts the information about the cleanest sources of energy at your fingertips. The Colorado Renewable Energy Society featured the programmer, Adrienne Blum from Sinton Instruments, during one of their March seminars. We also had some communication from the owner Ron, about how he uses the program to charge his EV with Xcel's Charging Perks incentive.

The application gathers data about the percentage of wind and solar energy that is feeding the grid during each hour of the day. Then it recommends the cleanest time to charge an EV or to use other high draw appliances. Not only are you using cleaner power but incentivizing the power company to increase renewable production.

It is also possible to get this data online at the Sinton Instruments site.

But how can this information be used?

If you charge your EV during the day when solar power is dominant in the grid, you are increasing the demand for power at that time. If you charge only on windy nights you are increasing demand for power that includes a higher percentage of renewables vs. "dirty power".

If you use the Xcel Charging Perks incentive where the time to charge is designated by Xcel predictions, That system can be set to utilize the cleaner power just by setting more than one "ready by" times.

Ron explains that he sets his to 5:00 PM and 7:00 AM so that he is using solar energy first. He checks before he keeps his EV plugged in at night and if it's low for wind energy he leaves his car unplugged.

The same could be said for other appliances. Running them during the best solar hours makes sense. Using more power when the wind is contributing to the grid also makes good sense.

Eventually this information could be used in a "smart home system" so that outlets and appliances only turn on during times of cleaner energy. Its a great day when control is distributed to consumers.