Feb 10 2009
How to build a solar car.
Ever wonder why we are not all driving solar powered cars ? Me too. With all that sun up there beating down on our cars - especially if you have a black or dark colored car. Ever notice how hot your car and black seats get during the summer months ? Do you know what that heat is ? Wasted energy. If all of the surfaces of our cars were covered in solar cells, that includes the glass on our windows and even the fabric on the seats, the amount of energy that could be captured would be substantial. If you live in California or Florida it’s just crazy that you are not capturing this energy and using it to power your vehicles. People always argue that there is not enough solar power to run a vehicle. That may be true if you are talking about the current large, heavy, gas guzzling vehicles on our roads today. If we reduce the speed limits within the City to about 40 miles per hour and build cars that are the size we need we could power them all with solar energy. Ever notice how many people are driving those huge vehicles to and from work every day ? Usually just one person. Imagine if we built the “Work-car” that was actually the size needed for that one person to get to and from work. Of course they would need to be hybrids until we could build more efficient solar cells. But in the mean time we should be plastering solar cells on newer lighter slower vehicles to power air conditioning, charge the battery and supplement the power needed to drive the car.
