Should we put solar panels on hybrid electric cars so that they will charge when in a sunny parking lot, etc.?
I just thought of the idea and it sounds pretty cool to me.
I just thought of the idea and it sounds pretty cool to me.
fred
Favorite Answer
Any electric or plug-in hybrid car can be solar powered.
eg http://www.green-car-guide.com/features/...
Tesla Motors can arrange installation of solar panels on an owners home or owners can purchase electricity that has been created by the company’s large scale solar farm partners. This pollution-free electricity is fed into the grid and directly offsets the electricity used to charge the car.
it is not practical to put on the car because of the extra weight & wind resistance, the area required, and little issues like driving through tunnels in cities like Boston where there is little light at street level.
The problem with plug-in hybrids is that the patents for NiMH batteries are owned by texaco or Chevron, and they prevent making or selling large enough batteries to make the electric only range >3 miles.
But there are Li-ion batteries that will deliver, http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com, so we can get rid of the noisy, smelly part of the hybrid.
Anonymous
I think putting solar panels on a hybrid electric car makes a lot of sense. Besides the initial cost and ongoing maintenance of the system it uses a renewable source of energy to charge and extend the range of the vehicle.
If the hybrid can also plug into and get charged from a solar powered system or an ordinary household socket then that would be even better.
The link below goes to a company that from the photos has a pretty slick integrated solar roof for the Prius and some other slightly clunky versions for other vehicles.
David M
Most of the answers supplied are pretty far off from accurate. The short answer here is solar power costs more than power from the power company at present. A car roof does not have enough space to supply more than a few miles per day driving with a very efficient car and the whole roof covered in a place with reasonable sun per day. Solar power on a clear day at noon supplies about 100 watts per square foot, when pointed right at the sun. The solar power on my home's roof is ~15% efficient solar cells. Some are currently being made and being tested that they claim are ~50% efficient. At that rating, you could harvest about 50 watts per square foot. 1 horsepower is about 746 watts (a little more really due to losses). Hybrids have what, 30 horsepower or sol electriv motors. So you would need 60 square feet of solar power at noon (pointed right at the sun) to run that, about 8 by 8 feet and that is with cells at 50% efficiency that are not even being sold yet. Current costs are $3 to $5/watt minimum to buy (capacity wise). I hear the price will come down as much as 80% over time. How much time, who knows? I am all for plug-in hybrids, GM may put one out next year. Expect a lot of progress in solar, hybrids and batteries over the next few years. But if everyone waits until they get better, no one buys what is sold now. And if no-one buys what is sold now, no one is going to spend the (BIG) money to improve on what they are selling now. Makes the problem somewhat tough, you know?
lystrayel
You do realize the Electric part of the car charges while it is being driven, right? Sort of makes a solar panel redundant.
Solar panels are heavy and currently inefficient. The weight would make a car use more energy than it can benefit from having a solar panel.
Now if you want to see solar tech doing something really cool. Look for Solar powered water heaters. Your water Heater is a HUGE part of your electric/gas bill. Mounting the tank and a panel on the roof not only pulls one of your biggest energy (and cash drains) off the grid, it works surprisingly well.
loren
Our solar energy technology has not yet really reached a point where this would be terribly effective. A single solar panel the size of a car roof would sadly not provide very much power to the car. You certainly couldn't run on it; you might be able to power the radio, I suppose. They're expensive to produce, and to replace if anything damages them (which is fairly likely in a car). This isn't to say that solar energy is a bust or not effective at all. On a large scale, solar energy is definitely the way to go. In orbit, the International Space Stations draws major power from its solar panels, but it has hundreds of square feet of them - most space than the actual inhabited space of the station. FedEx's major shipping headquarters near LAX is covered in a state of the art solar array that, except for peak holiday shipping, tends to power the massive facility and supply a little back to the grid. Large scale, solar energy is the way to go. On a small, personal scale, we don't have enough efficiency yet to make it effective. Now, solar arrays on your roof, or spanning an otherwise vacant WalMart parking lot, into which you could plug the battery in your electric car - that sounds like a good way to get your commuting done.