There should be a button to switch between using solar pannel and gasoline.
2007-01-25 08:52:06 · 7 answers · asked by ?????? 2 in Environment
we can
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1995/solar-electric.html
http://www.winstonsolar.org/challenge/
Mounting solar pannels on the car adds weight, so it is better to recharge a battery pack at home or work. Tesla recon abot $30,000 of solar pannels on your garage would meet average motoring need. And that way you can also have the secutity of mulyiple fuel sources, wind, biomass, geo-thermal etc.
totally electric vehicles are already capable of meeting our personal transport needs.
an electric motor is far more efficent than ice because:
max torque at 0 means a car like the Tesla, www.teslamotors.com, does 0-60mph in 4 secs, no complicated gearbox, even for off road you can just put a motor in each wheel, see mitsubushi rally car.
no cooling or catalyctic exaust system, no timing belts, cams valves etc, only one moving part, so very reliable.
No warm-up period (on most journeys fossil fuel car engnes never reach optimum operating temperature) No smell, no noise, very enjoyable stressless driving. No energy used when stationary, and energy recovery when slowing down or going downhill.
there should be no button to switch to fossil fuel/infernal combustion. but if you really need to go more than 250 miles without stopping for a 30 minute recahrge then AC propultion provide a towable generator, and when you get to your destination you can drop the dead-weight of the ice and revert to the incredible electric tZero performance
2007-01-26 08:06:40 · answer #1 · answered by fred 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A solar panel that covers the entire roof of the vehicle is not capable of supplying enough horsepower to even move the vehicle. Gasoline is a series of controlled explosions producing hundreds of horsepower. A solar panel would have to run for years to produce the same kinetic energy as a gasoline engine that ran for 15 minutes.
2007-01-25 09:02:25 · answer #2 · answered by Silent One 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It would be very expensive. Solar cells, batteries (you'd have to accumulate power for a while), control systems. The rest of the car would need to be very high tech and light.
There is a contest for solar powered cars. The ones in the contest are not very practical, they can only move one person and no cargo.
See for pictures:
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/organizations/SOA/photos-2005-july-18.html
A more practical approach would be to use solar cells to make hydrogen and oxygen from water, and use those to power a "fuel cell" in a car. Still too expensive right now, is being developed for the future.
2007-01-25 09:23:26 · answer #3 · answered by Bob 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A solar panel on a car would not provide enough power. We could use them to charge batteries in hyprids or all-electric cars--but you'll still need to plugg them in to recharge.
Some solar-powered cars have been built--but they have to be very lightweight and they are slow--again, the solar paneels a car can carry just can'tproduce the needed power.
2007-01-25 09:26:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A panel that size would not provide enough power to run a car. Even an ultralight car like the one below needs to have batteries as a primary source of power.
2007-01-25 08:59:42 · answer #5 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Enough solar panels to run a car would not fit on top of a 18 wheeler's trailer.
2007-01-25 10:20:42 · answer #6 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Cause what happens on a cloudy day or even at night? Then, it would be a no-go or nova(spanish for no go)
2007-01-25 08:59:56 · answer #7 · answered by Uchihaitachi345 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋