VENETA,
Ore. (KMTR) -- The Oregon Country Fair is back for the summer of 2010, this time with a more visual presence pushing renewable fuel and energies.
Around 40,000 people are expected to walk through the gates of the Oregon Country Fair from July 9th to July 11th, 2010.
One of the first things fairgoers will see at the front gate is the “Wheels of Revolution” exhibit, home to several electric cars and alternative fuel vehicles. One car stands out from the pack, not for any particular flash, but for it’s owners commitment.
A 1950’s “Morris” model car can be seen at the exhibit, running solely on electricity. A California resident named “Roger” converted the car from a gasoline engine to a pure electric engine over a decade ago.
For the last 10 years, Roger has been driving his electric car on 50 miles a charge all the way from California to Veneta. 2010 marks the decade anniversary for Roger.
In order to drive it up from California, Roger stops at towns along the Oregon Coast in order to charge the lithium-ion batteries inside of it, through a regular wall outlet.
Roger says he displays his car at the Oregon Country Fair to raise awareness. He says electric cars are relatively easy to adapt into people’s lives and are more accessible than many think. He says 90% of American’s would be able to do their daily business on one electric charge. Roger says he also has the option to upgrade to a longer range battery pack of about 120 miles if necessary.
“Almost nobody has ever been in one, nobody knows of anybody who has one. So I thought, this is a good place to have people see that it actually does exist,” says Roger. “It's not very complicated, and hopefully it plants the seed or sparks their enthusiasm to follow up and some year I hope I'm not the only electric car who drives here.”
Roger says his electric motor will last much longer than typical gasoline motors as well as well, saying the car will still be running well by the time his granddaughter is able to drive.
Right next door to Roger’s electric car, another man’s mission to change the way third-world-countries can cook and keep the environmental clean.
Bart Orlando put together a solar parabolic dish to show at the fair, opting to cook a popcorn-geyser out of it to draw attention to the “Wheels” exhibit. Bart volunteers at Humboldt State University in California, making parabolic dishes out of stainless steel, mirrors or tin cans.
When aimed at the sun, heat rays reflect into a central spot on the dish, giving it the ability to cook food, bake bread or boil water.
“It turns out sometimes the best way to help the environment sometimes is by helping the people third-world-countries so that they don't have go out and kill endangered species to survive or destroy their habitat to survive,” says Orlando. “If you find ways so that a billion women don't have to carry wood all day, then the forest will not be destroyed.”
For more information on Bart Orlando’s work with solar parabolic dishes, follow this link: http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/solarcooking/
