A Solar Car - Now That"s a Hot Idea, But Will It Work?
The hot sunny day and sun's rays were beating down on the thin solar panel body of the all-electric car.
The solar cells were keeping the batteries charged and bringing them up to maximum capacity after yesterday's 20-mile round trip drive to downtown for shopping and brunch at the Bistro.
Oh yes, and a cup of Java from you know where - hint: new modified green logo.
As the coordinator for a Think Tank, I get all the great perks of trying out or beta testing the next new thing.
Unfortunately, this particular innovation I am not at liberty to discuss, as it isn't ready yet for public consumption, but someday it will be - yes, someday you will have solar cells integrated into the body of your car, but it will be a while still.
The funny part about these real-world, real-life tests is that the research requires all sorts of data input.
The car keeps track of most of it, but this company also wishes to know the elevation changes and gradients of the streets used, yes, funny huh, but they want to get to a point someday where their solar powered charging system can keep up with the driving of the car while in use.
"California Dreaming on Such a Summer Day," indeed.
The other day, I was talking to an acquaintance about this, and we talked about driving an all-electric car across the Australian Outback.
Yes, it wouldn't make it, but super light-weight high-tech university solar car projects have made it all the way, using solar power.
So, potentially a solar car maybe feasible, best of all the Shell Oil Company was one of the sponsors which made the solar car trip possible across the Australian Continent.
Yep, that's where they do those cross country challenges with solar powered cars, but it's going to be a while until you or I can have a solar car which can drive indefinitely around town without running out of juice.
That is coming, I assure you.
If the vehicle is light enough and the solar cells efficient enough, we'll get there, 5-8 years maybe 10-years for a fully powered solar car? And it won't be viable everywhere on this planet.
Cloud cover or bad weather take down the solar cell efficiency, and night time driver will dwindle your batteries rapidly.
With future light-weight powerful batteries and more efficiency it can work - well, some day.
For instance, the Mars rover likes solar power, but it too has to rest and wait to charge up sometimes too.
What we need is another 2 to 3 times increase in current efficiency for solar cells.
Luckily, there are a lot of minds researching this right now.
Yes, a solar powered car might be in your future, it is indeed at least one potential eventuality in the alternative energy automobile arena.
Please consider all this.
The solar cells were keeping the batteries charged and bringing them up to maximum capacity after yesterday's 20-mile round trip drive to downtown for shopping and brunch at the Bistro.
Oh yes, and a cup of Java from you know where - hint: new modified green logo.
As the coordinator for a Think Tank, I get all the great perks of trying out or beta testing the next new thing.
Unfortunately, this particular innovation I am not at liberty to discuss, as it isn't ready yet for public consumption, but someday it will be - yes, someday you will have solar cells integrated into the body of your car, but it will be a while still.
The funny part about these real-world, real-life tests is that the research requires all sorts of data input.
The car keeps track of most of it, but this company also wishes to know the elevation changes and gradients of the streets used, yes, funny huh, but they want to get to a point someday where their solar powered charging system can keep up with the driving of the car while in use.
"California Dreaming on Such a Summer Day," indeed.
The other day, I was talking to an acquaintance about this, and we talked about driving an all-electric car across the Australian Outback.
Yes, it wouldn't make it, but super light-weight high-tech university solar car projects have made it all the way, using solar power.
So, potentially a solar car maybe feasible, best of all the Shell Oil Company was one of the sponsors which made the solar car trip possible across the Australian Continent.
Yep, that's where they do those cross country challenges with solar powered cars, but it's going to be a while until you or I can have a solar car which can drive indefinitely around town without running out of juice.
That is coming, I assure you.
If the vehicle is light enough and the solar cells efficient enough, we'll get there, 5-8 years maybe 10-years for a fully powered solar car? And it won't be viable everywhere on this planet.
Cloud cover or bad weather take down the solar cell efficiency, and night time driver will dwindle your batteries rapidly.
With future light-weight powerful batteries and more efficiency it can work - well, some day.
For instance, the Mars rover likes solar power, but it too has to rest and wait to charge up sometimes too.
What we need is another 2 to 3 times increase in current efficiency for solar cells.
Luckily, there are a lot of minds researching this right now.
Yes, a solar powered car might be in your future, it is indeed at least one potential eventuality in the alternative energy automobile arena.
Please consider all this.
Source...