Toyota developing solar-powered car for the road
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From: jenneylist on 10 Mar 2010 03:03 Toyota developing solar-powered car for the road http://www.greenautomotive.co.cc/2010/03/toyota-developing-solar-powered-car-for.html
From: C. E. White on 12 Mar 2010 21:01 "dbu''" <nospam(a)nobama.com.invalid> wrote in message news:y--dnfRQNMR08grWnZ2dnUVZ_jGdnZ2d(a)giganews.com... > After having looked close up at a Prius I became quite impressed with > the innovation Toyota has built into this vehicle. I noted that one of > the options was a solar powered vent fan that comes on automatically > while your car is parked. This might be an option for those who have to > park in the sun in places like Arizona where inside the car can get VERY > hot. Besides this innovation I'm told the solar panel is located on the > roof. I wondered at the time if this might be a forerunner to a solar > powered Prius. While you might be able to derive some electricity from the soloar cells on the roof of a practical car, there isn't enough area available to make a practical solar powered car. I suppose if you left the car parked in the sun for several days you could charge the batteries up for a short trip, but that is about all you could hope for. To see what you can do when it comes to powering a car soley with solar energy look into the solar car races they hold occasionallly. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_vehicle . Ed
From: C. E. White on 14 Mar 2010 13:31
"dbu''" <nospam(a)nobama.com.invalid> wrote in message news:ebSdnaBm8dZZbgfWnZ2dnUVZ_vmdnZ2d(a)giganews.com... > In article <FoGdnXKtb7RobAfWnZ2dnUVZ_oidnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, > "C. E. White" <cewhite3(a)mindspring.com> wrote: > >> "dbu''" <nospam(a)nobama.com.invalid> wrote in message >> news:y--dnfRQNMR08grWnZ2dnUVZ_jGdnZ2d(a)giganews.com... >> >> > After having looked close up at a Prius I became quite impressed with >> > the innovation Toyota has built into this vehicle. I noted that one of >> > the options was a solar powered vent fan that comes on automatically >> > while your car is parked. This might be an option for those who have >> > to >> > park in the sun in places like Arizona where inside the car can get >> > VERY >> > hot. Besides this innovation I'm told the solar panel is located on >> > the >> > roof. I wondered at the time if this might be a forerunner to a solar >> > powered Prius. >> >> While you might be able to derive some electricity from the soloar cells >> on >> the roof of a practical car, there isn't enough area available to make a >> practical solar powered car. I suppose if you left the car parked in the >> sun >> for several days you could charge the batteries up for a short trip, but >> that is about all you could hope for. To see what you can do when it >> comes >> to powering a car soley with solar energy look into the solar car races >> they >> hold occasionallly. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_vehicle . >> >> Ed > > Ed, you're thinking todays technology. Think what may be in the future. While I am sure solar cells will continue to be improved, there are practical limits to the maximum conversion efficiency. Currently the best solar cells are around 25% efficient. From what I have read there are some scientist that believe they may eventually be able to create solar cells with conversion efficiencies as great as 70% under laboratory conditions. Let's imagine that eventually practical solar cells can be developed that are 50% efficient in real world applications. On a sunny day in the summer the sun provides somewhere around 100 watts of power per square foot. With a 50% conversion efficiency this means you could, on a sunny day, generate 50 watts of useful power per square foot. Lets say your car is 6 foot wide by 10 foot long and you plan to cover it all with solar cells. You have a projected area of around 60 square feet. So on a sunny day you can generate maybe 3000 watts of power which is about four horsepower. And this is on a bright sunny cloud free day in the summer, with a nice clean car, and open skies all around. Things will be much worse most of the time.So even if I am wrong by a factor of four, it seems to me you are never going to have a practical car powered solely by solar cells mounted on the car. Ed |