Originally published on Gas2.
Stephan Maag claims to have one of the first Tesla Model S P90D sedans in Europe, but that isn’t what sets him apart from other Tesla owners. What Stephan has that almost no one else does is a residential hydroelectric generating system that he uses to charge his Tesla when he is done driving. Many owners use solar panels mounted on the roof of their home for recharging a Tesla Model S, but Stephan has taken the idea of sustainability one step further.
According to Autoblog, Maag’s home hydro facility uses the force of 317 gallons of water per second falling through a 12-feet-tall pipe to turn the generator at the bottom. His video doesn’t provide any information on how long it takes to recharge his Tesla using hydropower, but it does show a very cool control panel that opens and closes the sluice gate automatically and shows how much electricity is moving into the battery of the Model S. Presumably, he also uses the hydro generator to supply some of the electricity for his home as well.
We all know that an electric car is greener with gren electricity. Studies show that an electric car in West Virginia, which gets more than 90% of its electricity from coal, is actually less friendly to the environment than a Prius. On most of the grid, they are greener than a Prius, but the greener the electricity, the better.
Not everyone has a stream or a mill pond on their property that can be used to make electricity the way Stephan Maag does. But for those who do, hydroelectric power is the perfect choice for recharging an electric car.
Reprinted with permission.
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