Going “green” has become more of a thought for the future in recent years as the threat of diminished natural resources becomes more apparent, but for some Austin, Texas residents, that future is now. Not only do these urbanites live in a community stuffed full of green technology for their homes, they also drive green thanks in part to Chevrolet. Check out the unique Pecan Street community built as a “smart grid” research project above, compliments of AOL.
Pecan Street sounds like the name of a neighborhood road you’d find in any given town across the country but in the case of Austin, TX, it’s actually the name of a research and development organization based at the University of Texas at Austin. But unlike most of the R&D we’re used to in the automotive industry, Pecan Street, Inc. develops and tests green technology, ultimately aiming to reinvent America’s electrical system.
The flagship of the organization is a project called the Pecan Street Demonstration. Built on the old Mueller Municipal Airport property, this community takes living green to a new level. Houses in the community are all equipped with solar panels, have a reclaimed water system, and feature carbon-sequestering landscaping. The community also has the first LEED (a development rating system)-platinum hospital in the country, as well as green-built office buildings and stores. Right now, about 1,000 residents live in the Pecan Street community with another 4,900 homes planned for the future.
The whole idea of the Pecan Street project is to demonstrate and test the sustainability of green living.
As part of the project, community members drive electric vehicles which they charge using home-based chargers. Pecan Street has teamed up with Chevrolet to have 100 Chevy Volts in one square mile.
According to Brewster McCracken, Executive Director of Pecan Street, Inc., the electric car presents the biggest new electrical load on the electrical system of the United States since the air conditioner. So what better way to test if the power grid is ready for massive amounts of electric vehicles than to have the highest concentration of them in the country all being used and charged in one place on a regular basis?
Green technology and electric vehicles are often scoffed at by die-hard gearheads, the thought being that if it doesn’t have a traditional gasoline engine, that it won’t be a “real” car. But like it or not, green technology seems to be gaining momentum and it might become a bigger part of your life before you know it.