Solar panels & hybrids?

[Morpheus 02]

Just wondering...

With the increase in hybrids...how realistic/helpful would solar panels be on a near-future car?

We've seen the ones that are totally decked out in panels but only go 35 miles an hour and travel maybe that far.

But could solar panels help enhance the electric portion, especially if the car sits out in the sun, or you're driving long distances?

And how much more of a help could they be on buses & trucks, or even mini-vans?


How about a fold-up panel that could be laid out on the botton of a pick-up truck & then folded when that space is needed?

I understand there are safety issues (i.e. what if the panels fly off at high speeds), but surely there could be enough preventitive measures done to make it safer.

What do you think and/or know?

 

[Meredith]

It could help but it won't really take off until solar panels can be "painted" on body panels so they match the contours of the car's body. They can be helpful in extending the range of hybrids for sure and for commuter cars parked out in the sun all day the benefit is obvious.

 

[JustAFriend]

You can only get about 700watts of solar energy per square yard on the Earths surface.

Unless you want to go 10mph in a 200lb car you're better off putting up a sail and hoping for some wind....

 

[Lindley]

A better solution would be to lay out solar panels all along the sides of the highways, and have a means for the car to draw power directly from the road. Possibly something akin to how trolleys do it with overhead wires......I doubt wireless power transfer is practical yet.

 

[RevDMV]

Solar panels on homes will be a better solution to providing the plug in power for hybrids in the near future.

 

[JustAFriend]

Hope you have a lot of land and a lot of sunshine in your area.
It's going to take 70-100 square yards of solar panels just to run your home.
(unless you live in a mud hut below the level of the 20th century)

Add another 100square yards for EACH vehicle and you better be living on a LOT
of land in Phoenix or the southwestern states.... 8 or 10 times that elsewhere in
the country.

The nasty little secret about solar is that there is just so much power available for
each square foot of the Earth's surface. No technological gimmickry or wishful
thinking is going to change that. If 700watts/hour (or due to clouds and weather a more
realistic 250watts/hour) average is falling on a square yard of surface, you CANT get any
more than that back.

 

[Saturn0660]

you don't have to be hater about it.... Any little bit helps.. You would be able to trickle charge all day.. so when you car was sitting all day in the sun.. Just a little bit extra free from the sun...

 

[Morpheus 02]

you don't have to be hater about it.... Any little bit helps.. You would be able to trickle charge all day.. so when you car was sitting all day in the sun.. Just a little bit extra free from the sun...

Thanks Saturn -- you understand what i was getting at...i wasn't expecting the solar panels to be the main source of power for hybrid cars...just curious though how MUCH of a help they could be.

I was also curious if they could help buses and/or trucks, which have a much bigger surface area...it's seems to me like a wasted opportunity, but didn't have the scientific knowledge to know if my gut feeling was trueor false.

 

[Lindley]

You know how the sprinkle glass into asphalt to make it more reflective?

What if there were a way to make an asphalt-like material which had limited conductivity, enough so that solar "flakes" similarly mixed in could channel power through it? Oh, we wouldn't want people being shocked if they walked on it, but it'd be pretty useful if we could turn the interstate system into a source of power rather than a drain....

 

[Ariadne]

IIRC there are already solar panels on the dividers between the two sides of the highway in some sunny areas, to power the lights for overnight.

 

[TransporterBeam]

The Government should pay 90% of the costs of a person's costs of buying and installing a solar energy system into a house or business.

 

[JustAFriend]

The Government should pay 90% of the costs of a person's costs of buying and installing a solar energy system into a house or business.

...'cause we all know that Government Money magically comes from nowhere...

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

If they're going to use solar panels on freeway dividers, wouldn't wind sails work better? From my brief time spent on the freeway median with a flat tire, I remember the cars generating lots of wind as they zipped by.

 

[Lindley]

Hmm, yeah, a series of turbines down the center of the road would be interesting.