Solar Power in Cars
Solar energy is one of the many renewable sources of energy that is used for fueling vehicles, running consumer products and for the efficient running of homes and business establishments. Solar power is harnessed with the help of solar cells and solar panels which are placed in the item that has to be powered.
The solar car is something that is envisioned to materialize in the future, with some countries already having solar cars racing across countries.
With this, it is proven that it is viable to indeed produce and manufacture solar power cars in bulk, in the near future so that everyone will soon own a solar power car.
Of course, once solar power cars are manufactured, it does not implicate that all other fuel sources for cars on highways will be removed. All that is done in solar power cars is the supplementation of traditional fuel with solar energy so that you save not only on your economy, but also save the environment in more ways than one every year.
The solar power cars that are used in races today run only on solar power, and thus look odd in appearance. This is because these cars are designed in such a way that they can collect maximum solar energy with which it is possible for the car to gain the required speed and desired efficiency.
The solar cells used in solar power cars are large, and usually cover the entire vehicle. However in case of commercial uses, solar cells are much smaller and designed so that the vehicle not only looks attractive, but is also efficient in its functioning. Solar cars can be used for short commutes in town as these cars can work only on solar energy.
The batteries found in the vehicle stores excess solar power so that this power can be used when solar power is not available on demand like on cloudy days and at nighttime. The engines found in these solar power cars are very much like the engines found in electric cars found today. In addition to this, the cars are lightweight, so that solar power can be used more efficiently.
At present, there are many types of solar power cars in the development stage today, which are also available for sale. However as these cars are in the developmental stage, the car is not available to the general public. With so many benefits found in solar power cars, its cost will not be much higher than the cost of the traditionally powered vehicles of today.
Another benefit of solar power cars is there is no hassle of stopping at gas stations for gas nor is there the need of getting worried of rising gasoline costs. With a solar power car, you save on the money that you would have otherwise have needed for buying fuel to run your car. In addition to this, with solar power cars you will be doing your bit in stopping global warming problems as there are no fuel emissions from solar power cars.
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5 Responses to “Solar Power in Cars”
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Think Solar Energy
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Having a market-ready solar car would be a great thing. I’d guess, however, that it will take at least between five to eight years before such cars will really become available for the general public.
@Chris
Availability is one thing – but it should be cheap as well so people can realy buy them!
Wouldn’t photovoltaic panels be better ’spent’ by putting them on your roof-top and using them to charge a battery electric vehicle? On a car you’re almost never at an optimum angle (and sometimes you’re in the shade or outside!), you have to worry about weight, and the utility of having solar energy recharge you in-transit is questionable.
Simply put, the surface area of a car is inadequate to provide enough solar energy to go an appreciable distance. Even using something like the Aptera 2e, and covering all upward-facing surfaces with solar panels, you’d get maybe 10 miles/day. That’s only a quarter of how much the average person drives in a year.
Put those solar panels on the roof, and it doesn’t matter where the car is parked. Even SolarTaxi, the poster-child for solar-powered vehicles, put half their solar panels on the roof back home and drew power from the grid wherever they went. They fully acknowledged that putting panels on the vehicle was impractical, and that the place for PV is on rooftops, or better yet in tracking, concentrating, liquid-cooled solar farms in the desert.
On-device solar: great for calculators, lousy for EVs.
While I strongly support solar energy, I strongly doubt that solar will ever be found to be a good application for mass-produced cars. First of all, photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most expensive renewable technology currently available, and the payback period will exceed the life of the car. Second, PV is fairly heavy, and the added weight to the car will make it impractical and decrease performance. Of course, if some of the nanotechnology companies start to deliver as promised, then that could change. Solar cells could be “painted” onto the car.
Being an advocate of some green technology, I am happy to see research in solar cars, however given the cost I doubt that they will become common in our lifetimes.
The folks involved in this research might be better deployed in making stationary solar power generation more affordable, and/or more reliable. If those 2 things happen we will have a real chance of making solar power more than 1% of the total power production in the US.