Electric Cars

There's no problem in principle in fitting a solar panel to the roof of any electric vehicle. The problem is one of practicalities owing to the conversion efficiency of today's solar cells. It simply isn't worth it at the moment.

Solar panels have been capturing energy on water-going vehicles for years. The principal use is to make sure that there is something in the batteries after a long layover that can be used to put the lights on and/or start the engine.

Harvesting sunlight for propulsion is something else. The area needed to capture sufficient sunlight over sufficiently long times in between duty cycles is rather more than the footprint of the vehicle, so fixed installations are a better way to go, in principle.

Solar/battery-powered air conditioner? That'll be the day! Why not just open the windows?

By golly, I never new a Brit to be so negative. It is my understanding that the whole of Europe was far ahead of the USA when it come to the implementation of alternate energy. My old motor home had deep cycle house batteries that were charged by a small solar panel. But think on this, 240 watts at 12 volts provides 20 amps of charging power. Two hours in our hot Texas sun could provide sufficient charge to get one home after a day of shopping. The solar panels would be to supplement and compliment, not replace a plug-in charge.

The reply was intended to be neutral.

Given that a road vehicle may need, oh, say 5-10kW while moving, plus any air conditioning load for warmer climes, consider the duty cycle of the vehicle, the panel efficiency, and whether there is sufficient area on the vehicle to fit enough panel to cover the duty cycle. If the panel were intended merely to supplement rather than provide all, then why not go for full land-based collection and distribution rather than relying on recharge? After all, there's lashings of rooftops and desert in some places just waiting to be exploited.

It's only arithmetic.

National characteristics: there is a saying along the lines that an American will have tried and failed three times before the Brits have made up their mind....

actually, what I was looking for was that we contribute ideas for improvement. Ideas such as the prime mover (i.e. electric motor) built into each wheel and controlled by computer to assure that the proper power was contributed by each wheel to account to turns, road conditions, and even braking. After all, the current gasoline fueled prime mover through a transmission, provides only 3 to 7 HP to the road. It would seem to me that if each wheel contributed a portion of that power directly, it would save close to 75% of the energy through the thermal and friction loses of the engine/transmission. Let's give some thought to this, since one of the main considerations for our energy crisis of today is efficiency and conservation. Let us have yoiur ideas, please, after all, we are scientists and engineers are we not? I hope we were all taught how to think, so, let us publish our thoughts. BTW, if one does publish a good and usable idea, it is dated, thus, the copyright becomes the right of the first to publish.

Let us have yoiur ideas, please, after all, we are scientists and engineers are we not? I hope we were all taught how to think, so, let us publish our thoughts.

Please bare in mind that 'PWSLACK', myself and many others have already discussed this topic in great depth before on CR4 on numerous threads over the years, hence the basic summary comments made.

Please perform a search of CR4 for the numerous relevant threads. There are literally dozens of threads covering pages and pages of comments, theory and web links on the subject (it is a very common topic). Don't forget to include MPG and fuel millage threads also.

We will be happy to answer or expand on any specific questions that have not already been covered.

Ooh that's good! How about wheels that lift up when they can't contribute anything significant to the optimized model, thereby allowing potential blow outs to be removed also. A teetering inline wheeled prime mover with saftey wheels ready for imbalance! :)

make the auto body out of solar panels . magnets on the wheels to charge when the cars is moving too a constant charge to the batterys.

I suggested this 5 years ago I belive in another engery soultion thread

"magnets on the wheels to charge when the cars is moving too a constant charge to the batterys.

I suggested this 5 years ago I belive in another engery soultion thread."

Please tell me you are not serious.

P.S. Where did you learn to spell?

I use my 63 watt panel that i made,to charge or run anything in my car. Laptop,fans ( air went out ),etc.

Last week, I received and used a Greenworks Lithium Ion Battery (cordless) powered lawnmower. The 4Ah 40 Volt battery had enough power for me to mow both the front and back yards on one charge. Now, if I have a 63 watt panel like =saveone12 has, I could set it up in a sunny location and maintain a charge on my batteries easily between weekly mowing. Since the electric automobile will most likely be using LiFePO4 battery, it may not be able to be fully charged while on is in the shopping mall parking lot, but at least the driving range can be extended between charges.

It's on the way!

http://gizmodo.com/5022382/solar-panel+powered-prius-in-2009-confirmed

Yes - those Brits are a bunch of negative nellies.

Cup of tea, anyone?

Now that looks like my next car, to replace my Honda Element if it ever wares out. BTW, my last name is Tankersley, I believe I have a shire and a church named after me just out side of London, hehehe.

Tankersley is near Barnsley in Yorkshire, and is around 170m from London. It's over 3 hours by road internal combustion engine, according to Google Maps, though a solar-collection-no-topup-powered vehicle hasn't yet been developed that can do that distance in that time in this climate.

My grandfather homesteaded in Oklahoma in 1889, he served on the Territorial legislature, helped to found what is now Oklahoma State University and had a hand in writing the Oklahoma State Constitution. He died in 1909, my father was only 6 years old at the time, but he did get to see statehood. In my genealogy search, however, there is some evidence that my line was adopted into the Tankersley clan, with the real immigrant being Stropes, Stroops, etc. who came to the colonies from Germany in 1640 and was a gunsmith by trade. This may or may not be true as the trace of the Tankersley line was incomplete and broken in the mid 19th century.

Also, please see my working website, http://chtank.org. Ignore any report that the site is not a valid URL, since it has passed the W3C muster. I do believe the invalid URL fault is with Firefox. You will find me, also, as a minor contributor to the Sustainable Engineering section of this CR4 forum.

Yes, a cup of tea would be nice, or, perhaps a pint of good English ale at the local pub.

The solar panel on the Gen III Prius powers a small electric fan that keeps the cabin ventilated while the vehicle is parked on the sun. It does not contribute to the motive power. I do not think it has anything to do with air conditioner either but I could be mistaken here.

If you are suggesting to implement the solar panel for a "recharge while it sits in the lot/driveway" type of installation, I think its a great Idea. Save the plug in time, and reduce grid use. It will definitely not provide enough recharge power to be of any use while driving, but I'm assuming the panel's would be for the sole purpose of a trickle charge while the vehicle is not in use. In that case... ok in my book.

Exactly! But the trickle charge at 12 volts might be at 10 to 20 amps. Of course if the trickle is at 24 or 48 volts, the, of course, it would be at 5 to 10 amps or 2.5 to 5 amps, repsctfully.

Capstone tested one of it's micro turbine in a Ford not long ago.

Checck out thier mico turbine and the Air Bearing

http://www.capstoneturbine.com/prodsol/techtour/index.asp

I'd rather park in the shade with my soft exterior car that robotically can't kill by psychotic choice and buy the electricity from the car park solar umbrella robots!

Hi Electric Cars,

I have been a solar guy for 30 years, and there is so much room for improvemnet to use solar cells on our cars.

I built a 4'x 8' roof rack and attached it using tie downs at the corners of the rack, and used a snow ski rack to mount the cooling platform to, and it reduced "cooling" load by >50%, buy it does not look good. Sure, PV panels could power up our batteries while driving or parked on a similar platform. Why Not?

Yes, and Pruis has installed solar panels (on the roof) to operate cooling fans. Hey, we did an engineering analysis of radiant heat load on Army Barracks in El Paso, and the numbers for reducing heat load by shading came to reducing the energy for HVAC by 50%! I am a dealer for automated rolling shutters (rolladens), and we waste tons of energy by neglecting to use shading devices as a cooling device, on anything.

I use rolling shutters to control, "Modified Thromb Walls" for both passive solar heating and cooling! Hey, let's cut our energy bills.

We have to think about, "how can I use passive ideas for heating and cooling?". We talking about megabucks in savings.

Daylight Rolling Shutters DRS

Water proof you connections and place a solar panel under water the see how much your output goes up. They operate at high levels when cooled.

Use magic solar panel paint to paint the car, thats the trick!

All you really need are some frictionless muffler bearings to greatly improve the performance of your vehicle.

Sorry, I'm in a really rediculous mood today.