Amount of solar energy striking a car, sunny day, noon: 1000 W/m2.
Area of solar panel of typical solar car: 8 m2.
Do the math: 8000 W light incident on solar car.
Amount of energy consumed by typical solar car (not great, not terrible) at 35mph typical hwy driving, including periodic stops: 1600W.
Why this doesn't work in real life:
(1) Clouds come out, sun goes down, 1000 W becomes less (but that's not really a problem with battery backups)
(2) Cells aren't 100% efficient but more like 15%. Your 1000 W/m2 are now 150 W/m2, and your 8000 W array is now 1200 W.
I guarantee you once you get 40% efficient cells the solar cars will start to become practical in an engineering sense. Pooey on your argument!
I'd be floored if more than one or two teams primarily used conjugated polymers in their vehicles for ASC.
Conjugated polymers are an interesting technology but are back in the 1960's in terms of useful efficiencies. I have no idea where you got 150% greater efficiency, as the highest number I saw in that report for efficiency (not quantum efficiency; that's something academic) was 7% for green light, and something lower for sunlight.
To put things in perspective, even the poorest teams are using 14.5%+ efficient terrestrial silicon solar cells. The powerhouses will be using higher-grade silicon cells that weigh in upwards of 20%, and I know of two teams that are using satellite-grade multijunction cells (the best you can get), which may do as well as 27%.
There are dozens of novel technologies that are making progress in photovoltaics, but very few of them are even coming close to competing with the existing silicon and multijunction markets. It has been this way for decades.
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Amount of solar energy striking a car, sunny day, noon: 1000 W/m2.
Area of solar panel of typical solar car: 8 m2.
Do the math: 8000 W light incident on solar car.
Amount of energy consumed by typical solar car (not great, not terrible) at 35mph typical hwy driving, including periodic stops: 1600W.
Why this doesn't work in real life:
(1) Clouds come out, sun goes down, 1000 W becomes less (but that's not really a problem with battery backups)
(2) Cells aren't 100% efficient but more like 15%. Your 1000 W/m2 are now 150 W/m2, and your 8000 W array is now 1200 W.
I guarantee you once you get 40% efficient cells the solar cars will start to become practical in an engineering sense. Pooey on your argument!
I'd be floored if more than one or two teams primarily used conjugated polymers in their vehicles for ASC.
Conjugated polymers are an interesting technology but are back in the 1960's in terms of useful efficiencies. I have no idea where you got 150% greater efficiency, as the highest number I saw in that report for efficiency (not quantum efficiency; that's something academic) was 7% for green light, and something lower for sunlight.
To put things in perspective, even the poorest teams are using 14.5%+ efficient terrestrial silicon solar cells. The powerhouses will be using higher-grade silicon cells that weigh in upwards of 20%, and I know of two teams that are using satellite-grade multijunction cells (the best you can get), which may do as well as 27%.
There are dozens of novel technologies that are making progress in photovoltaics, but very few of them are even coming close to competing with the existing silicon and multijunction markets. It has been this way for decades.
"If it's not crystalline, it's CRAP!"