Are there any car makers looking for an engine model that uses the primary energy source; the Sun?

Question

Yes, they do have the hybrids, and are now trying to use the corn plant leaves to produce ethanol etc etc.

But those leaves do receive the energy directly from the Sun.

Can we do whatever is necessary to accumulate such energy without the need to defoliate so many hectares to grow the corn that will be needed to get enough ethanol?

Answer 1

Sunlight is too weak to power a car. At least a real car. You can power an ultra light weight, one passenger car like those in the source, but there is simply not enough power in the amount of sunlight that lands on the car to make even a small regular car that way. For an average size car, something like 14 horse power of sunlight hits it. Solar cells can convert about 15% of that to electricity, so you get only 1 horse power. And clouds, shade from trees and buildings, and night, all reduce the average even more. Sunlight is simply too weak a source to power a car directly. The best you could do is cover your house with solar panels and use them to make hydrogen at home and fuel up a hydrogen powered car. But the cost would be really high to do that, with most of the cost being in the solar panels. It takes about $4,000 worth of solar panels to make one horse power from full noon day sunlight. You can do the math with that number to compute how many dollars worth of solar panels you would need to power various cars. But remember, that is the maximum power the panels make on a clear day at noon. It will be much less on average. Also remember, that more than one horse power of solar panels will be bigger than the car itself. By the way, one horse power is 746 watts.

Answer 2

Yes, this company Zap makes electric cars that run on batteries charged by a solar panel. The model of car is called the Xebra Xero. I really want to buy one. It can hold 4 people and goes 40 mph. You can plug it in if there isnt enough sun.

Answer 3

All car makers are looking for its.. but it is technologically not feasable at this time.

Universities sponser a solar car contest (annually?) several years ago. the University of Michigan won it several years ago but the car was more like a 4 wheeled bicycle.. and it did not go fast... When solar panels become more efficient at converting the sun's rays directly into electricity then we may have one .. but right now they are just too inefficient

Answer 4

Helium + Hydrogen easily Helium atoms mixture with the Hydrogen atoms interior the direction of the ability of Fusion. This technique is often executed as a results of fact at one component those atoms are utilized to offer warmth and lightweight and on the yet another component the ability point of solar has to maintained. So this turns right into a queue like shape the place atoms consistently are available in and bypass out, and being switched over into some yet another form.