Ford reveals solar-powered car Ford reveals solar-powered car with sun-tracking technology - BBC News
I might be mistaken but I was under the impression that the low density of solar radiation made its use in vehicles limited: an area larger than a roof is needed. What gives? Do the numbers in this article stack up?
J.
It adds a bit to the (electric0 range-maybe a few miles (after a day in the sun). the late lamented Fiskar “Karma” has solar cells on the roof-the payback is pretty unimpressive.
Also note, from the article:
So, it requires an external concentrator to work, and still isn’t running off “live” solar power – i.e. You charge the batteries for time T, and then you drive for time T/N. It’s basically a standard electric car with a separate solar charger.
And it does use an area larger than a roof. Their concept is to combine a solar panel on the car with a “solar concentrator” that focuses sunlight onto the car. This article has more detail. The claim is that if you park the car under the solar concentrator all day, it will get an equivalent of a 4-hour charge (8 kWh), which I believe is enough for a 21 mile range. Without the concentrator, you only get about 3 miles out of a full day’s worth of sunlight.
Although there are a lot of people who drive less than 21 miles a day, so if they could get their employer to install the solar concentrator on the office parking lot (or work from home and install one there), they may never need to put gas in the car or charge it from the outlet. Then again, I imagine you get a lot less than 21 miles of charge on most days…
They use some interesting terms that allow omissions. But it is a concept, and they did actually make a usable solar hybrid car.
Note that is it a hybrid, so one can assume a gas engine in the thing, that’s how it can get the range of 620 miles.
As pointed out it uses a concentrator, nothing wrong with that for home charging as long as it doesn’t set a fire to the trash can left nearby or where the car was normally parked. But in doing so it is using far greater area then the solar panel area actually on the car, so don’t expect this car to fully charge at work unless they also have a solar collector lens.
I do wonder the wisdom of putting solar panels on vehicles. Solar panels can last some 20-30 years plus. And they are still on the expensive side, in home installation requiring optimal placement to get a decent payback. In a car you don’t have that ability to have the car placed optimally and cars crash and fall into disrepair. I would say that the payback period for a solar panel in a car would exceed the expected life of the car.
It would seem to make more sense placing the panel at home, even under the concentrator, using that power to recharge the car, or if the car is not available, to ‘store’ the power by selling it to the grid and rebuying it when the car is available. This should also allow ‘remote buying’ you produce the electricity at home and use the grid to (in economics terms) transport that power to your car where ever it is.
One cool thing about this setup however is that the car never needs to be plugged in, just parked under the collector, but this could also be done by inductive charging.
So as a concept very nicely done, but practically I do not see it
If you need an external device to make charging it practical, then why not make the panels themselves external, too? They’d be subject to a lot less wear that way, and could be optimally aimed, and other assorted benefits.
Maybe the concentrator is much, much cheaper than then panels?
One advantage is that you always have the solar panel on your car, so you get some charge whenever it’s in a sunlit area.
Also, the concentrator is just a bunch of plastic Fresnel lenses supported by a frame. It has no moving parts or electronics, so it should be cheap to build and maintain - at least compared to a solar panel + charging port.
However, I think I see a major limitation to this idea: the car itself tracks the sun by moving slowly under the concentrator. Which means the parking space must be oriented in the east-west direction, and extra space is needed to allow for the movement.
Ok I get it. I missed the detail that the lens was external to the car. I could have been brain-fried.
Which raises another question. I am currently sitting in 41° heat. (106°F for those who use funny units.) I can’t imagine it would be that much fun retrieving your car from your parking garage when it is sitting under a fresnel lens on a hot day. I’m with Chronos here. I can’ see any real advantage in this system over installing some solar panels on your roof and using that energy to charge your car in a normal fashion.
You don’t need to use the concentrator- there are 300 or 350 watts of solar panels on the roof that operate regardless. So… on a good day you might get 3-4 kwh from the sun. Not huge, but it is passive, free fuel every day.
Yeah, but enough to offset the added expense? And as has been already said, likely to be destroyed if you ever have an accident. The lifespan of a vehicle is quite different from a solar panel.
I am not saying that it is a bad idea per-se, but just something that is relatively expensive and not going to make a huge difference.
I haven’t been able to find a quote for the cost of the panels. Lifespan isn’t a problem- these have a 25 year life (if you don’t crash). Let me tell you how I look at it:
The Volt has an electric range of ~40 miles on effectively an 8kwh battery. People think it is cool but costs too much.
The Solar Engergi Max has a range of ~21 miles, presumably with half the battery. That makes the car affordable. If you drive 20 miles to work, and if you can get 4 kwh of charge, you can drive 20 miles back and not use any gas. Same range as the Volt for less (?)
Do the panels cost less than half of a Volt’s battery? If so, that’s win territory. Investors seem to like it- the company that makes the panels is up 10%+ since the announcement.
Oh, sure, it’s great for the company that makes the panels-- When a big manufacturer like Ford starts buying your product, that’s always good news. If this flops, it’s going to be Ford taking the loss, not the panel-maker.
And even without a catastrophic accident, I’d still expect the lifespan of a panel on a car to be significantly less than a similar panel on a roof. Big pile of snow falls off a roof onto the car, that’s more wear. Dust in the air and you drive through it at 60 MPH, that’s more wear. Grit kicked up by the truck in front of you, that’s more wear. It all adds up, and in fact, it’s similar sorts of wear (but to a lesser degree) that limits the lifespan of stationary solar panels.
I hear ya. On the one hand, that manufacturer’s panels are the most durable in the industry.
OTOH, maybe it won’t pan out. I am personally happy to see any manufacturer put solar panels on cars and am cautiously optimistic that it can reduce the consumption of gasoline while also being cost-efficient.