Meet my ELF – my new bike. Yes, it’s a bike. On steroids.

What’s an ELF?

It’s basically a bike, with a cover, and a bit of electric power to help – a cross between a car and a bicycle. (You may have seen them in Durham, that’s where the company, Organic Transit, is located.)   (ELF stands for Electric, Light, Fun)

The bike component of the ELF is a recumbent bike, meaning you are sitting closer to the ground with your feet in front of you to pedal, rather than upright and straddling a seat. With 3 wheels, (2 in the front, one in the back), it also has gears (a continuous gear train) and handle-bar brakes.

On the car side – add a mostly enclosed cab (with a spacious lockable trunk), an electric assist that is powered by a rechargeable battery and solar panel, rear view and side mirrors and you have the hybrid picture.

My ELFaba from Lori Bush on Vimeo.

Questions, I get questions

The most common questions I get are – “How fast can you go?” and “How far will the battery take you?”

How fast can I go? As fast as my little legs will carry me! If I just let the battery pull me, (meaning no pedaling) the ELF will speed up to 20 miles per hour, but I have gone faster, especially downhill.

How far can the battery take me? Well, if I were to ONLY use the battery, no pedaling, the battery I have should carry me about 15 miles. (Although there is an upgrade available that will go 40 miles.) The solar panel on the roof can trickle charge the ELF when we are in the sun, fully recharging the battery in about 6-7 hours. Or, for a faster recharge, I can carry the small battery inside, and fully recharge it connected to my standard outlet in about 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, the pedaling that I do does not recharge the battery, although I understand that will be an option on future ELFs.

Why an ELF?

My ELF around town

So, why an ELF, you might ask? Let me explain. It was the year of my BIG birthday, and I was looking for new ways to get exercise that was a little more fun. I love riding my bike, but found that I was mostly riding at events, or on the weekends. At the same time, I was noticing that many of my trips around town, were under 10 miles, one way. Although I had ridden my bike to work before, I would always feel the need to take a shower after I arrived. (Carrying my laptop in my backpack, with other items in my panniers, would definitely make me “glisten.”)

I was looking for a way to ride my bike that would get me a more “perspiration free” trip. The ELF gives me that! I can use the power in the battery on the way to a meeting, insuring a mostly “sweat free” appearance (minus the bike helmet hair) and then I often change to more comfortable biking clothes in order to get a better workout, and do more pedaling on the way back home.

An Experience

As you can probably tell, I love my ELF. (By the way, I call her “Elf-aba” – a shout out to one of my favorite Broadway musicals, Wicked.)

I’ve driven it to council meetings, to the Cisco office, to meetings around town, to the coffee shop and even grocery shopping. (The trunk will hold about 5 or 6 bags of groceries.)

Although the ELF weighs about 160lbs (without me in it), I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to pedal, except up some BIG hills when I’m glad to have the use of the “power assist.” I’ve driven it on the road (it’s a bike!) and on the sidewalk and greenways.(Always wearing a helmet.) Riding it all around town, at all times of the day, part of the fun is seeing the looks I get from folks as they do a double-take; smiling, pointing and taking pictures. So far, people are genuinely kind and move over into the other lane when I am on the road, even when I am far to the right in the bike lane.

Although I was concerned about night-riding, I’ve been told that we are very visible on the road at night – with my bright CREE headlights, turning signals, and brake lights. (I’m thinking of adding more reflectors, but so far, it’s just the base Elf.)

Fun and Useful 

At the end of the day, with Elf-aba, I feel like I have the best of all worlds. I’ve been able to add additional exercise to my routine, I’m still able to get around town, but by using less non-renewable energy, and still enjoy the outdoors and our wonderful community. All in all, it’s been one of my favorite benefits of reaching that BIG birthday milestone.

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We’ve all seen solar panels, but you haven’t seen anything like this before.  Ok, well, I haven’t.

What is it?

Picture from Town of Cary

This solar farm is Wake County’s largest public-private solar energy system, located on a 7 acre plot of land within our South Cary Water Reclamation Facility. FLS Energy, an Asheville, NC company, was selected at the Town’s solar energy partner.  (You may have read about them before, they installed the solar project as SAS, and have several other projects in the area.)

Not only is this our first and largest public-private partnership, it’s the beginning of a number of installations that will not only support our sustainability efforts, but will also make money for the town. Yep, that’s right.  Without any upfront costs or maintenance costs during the life of the lease, the Town will generate lease revenue of $35,000 a year for this part of the project, alone.  (The town’s lease is for 20 years.)  

Solar power, really?

Yes, really.  In 2007 the NC General Assembly mandated that electric utilities meet 12.5 percent of their electric sources through some sort of renewable means (wind, solar, etc.)  At that time, the Town started looking into ways to of installing solar equipment at various locations

The solar photovoltaic collector modules are the main components of the panels and are pressed between glass.  When I got up close to these panels, they were much thinner than I would have ever thought.

Solar energy is made when sunlight hits the semiconducting layer.  Since one is positively charged and the other is negatively charged the free electrons flow towards the positive semi-conducting layer, thereby creating an electric current.  This is direct current, often referred to as DC – but it needs to be converted to alternating current so it can be sent to the grid.  And that’s what this system does – sends the current generated to the grid for all of the community to consume.

Why Solar?

Solar power offers a lot of real benefits.

1. The electrical power generated at this site is returned to the distribution grid as a renewable source of energy. Renewable means that even when we can’t make use of the sun’s power (if it’s cloudy, nighttime or rainy)  we know that the sun will show up the next day, and the sun as a power source will start over.
2. Solar panels are quiet, and emissions free.  We aren’t contributing to global warming by putting any additional pollution into the air with this system.
3. This system is using a piece of property that would have just sat vacant, but is providing REAL value ($$$), back to the town,

How much power?

This location will generate approximately 1.89 megawatts of electricity. That’s 5,918 solar panels generating enough energy to power 174 homes and offset 1,772 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.   As the mayor stated in his remarks – that’s the size of some of our smaller neighborhoods such as Jamieson Park, that isn’t far from the facility.

Other Sustainability efforts

Also making an appearance at the event were the town’s Hybrid Trash truck (it gets about 4+ miles/gallon to the 1+ mile/gallon of the traditional trash truck), the Town’s hybrid car and electric car, and a solar trash can. 

Our one and only solar trash can, a Big Belly, is so cool.  A cool trash can, yes, I said it.  It’s a trash compactor, powered by solar energy, that “phones home” when it’s full.  The town is trying it out, for now, and hopes that the placement of something like this can reduce labor and fuel costs, and vehicle wear-and-tear.  Plus, like I said, it’s cool.

There’s a number of sustainability efforts going on in the town – you can read more about them, here.  (I hope to write up more soon.)  And our Environmental Advisory Board continues to work closely with the town, and our Sustainability Manager to review our programs and efforts along the way.  Thanks to everyone who works so hard to make our Town a leader in being green; leading by example, and getting the word out.

The unveiling

Town staff did a great job setting up the event – there was a big switch in the shape of a sun, and a snow globe that was “turned on” when the switch was “flipped.”  Even hot coffee and cider, along with “sun kissed” cookies.  You gotta love the fun our town staff likes to have.

As always, feel free to contact me with any comment, questions or concerns.  And have a wonderful Holiday Season!