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Solar Powered Car Can Get Close To 60 mph
Jason Sahler writes with this excerpt from Inhabit: "The World Solar Challenge across the Australian outback is coming up, and we're already seeing some truly incredible vehicles going for the gold. Take the Bethany, a solar powered vehicle designed by Cambridge University students. The vehicle is capable of achieving close to 60 miles per hour. Doesn't sound too impressive? Try doing it by using the power required to run a hairdryer."
I've had the same thought. I'd love to be able to drive to work in a plug-in vehicle of some sort, park the car in the sun all day and let it passively recharge, and then drive home using that free power. The only thing the sun does for my car now is make the interior too damn hot (even with window tint and a sun shade).
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
Get your SUV out of the way of my progress.
Ingredients: Turkey, Mechanically Separated Turkey, Water, Salt, Flavour.
Actually going fast is pretty easy so long as your aerodynamics are sound. All you need is enough energy input to counter air resistance and friction from the wheels and you can maintain whatever speed you like. The difficult bit is accelerating to a high speed quickly. It'd be easier to wait until people get over wanting to go fast than design a solar vehicle that can accelerate from a standstill anything like a petrol car.
Fortunately I can see that happening. As the price of driving goes up people's priorities will change.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
And I don't think my entire family will fit either.
Or groceries or luggage, or run on a cloudy day.
Solar auto challenges should be viewed as nothing more than useful engineer training that serves no immediate practical purpose, just as having my CompSci prof give me a large Senior Project, that I haven't used in my professional life, but gave me a solid foundation on which to grow.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Solar auto challenges should be viewed as nothing more than useful engineer training that serves no immediate practical purpose...
Disagree.
Granted solar power is not suitable for actual every day transportation in most parts of the world, a great deal of the engineering of these cars will move into the mainstream - and sooner than you think. As fuel gets more expensive, cars will have to get much lighter, much more aerodynamic, and have much lower rolling resistance. Many of them will use battery or hybrid power systems, and regenerative braking will become commonplace. Solar cars are pioneering all these technologies.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
It's a racing car. Your family and your groceries won't fit in a Formula 1 car or Indy car either. It's not supposed to be a family car or anything approximating that, it's for racing.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Using NiMH batteries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solectria_Sunrise
http://www.sunrise-ev.com/
Everyone else is just re-inventing the wheel.
The best place of solar panels is on the roof of your house, charging up a battery bank you can use to charge the car when you park it.
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