Using the Sun to Power Automobiles | Sun Powered Cars

In recent times the world has seen extremely volatile oil markets. This instability leads to fluctuating energy costs for homeowners and businesses, but where these price jumps are most visible is at the gas pumps. Purchasing fuel for vehicles is something that most people on earth are used to and accept as a cost of living. But with the current global climate change crisis, economic turmoil and the uncertain availability of oil in the future there is talk of using alternative methods to power our transportation. We’ve all heard of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and electric cars. But what about solar power? Could solar energy be used to operate a vehicle?

Presently solar powered vehicles are not commercially available, but there are many groups pursuing this holy grail of transportation technology. Typically, prototype solar vehicles are built by universities in order to teach engineering skills to students and to encourage the development of novel technologies. There are major challenge races that groups such as these enter, including the North American Solar Challenge and the World Solar Challenge, in which teams race their solar vehicles across Australia.

Solar vehicles function by using an array of photovoltaic cells (PVCs). PVCs work by converting the light energy from the sun into usable electric current. Designers of solar vehicles attempt to maximize the surface area of the PVC arrays to make use of the most solar energy possible while making the vehicle as aerodynamic as possible. The energy from the PVCs is used in conjunction with a battery, much like a gasoline engine is used with a battery in conventional automobiles. Although most prototype solar cars are built for only one passenger and would not be practical for the average consumer, they are actually quite powerful and most can easily reach highway speed limits.

Obviously solar power is not a viable option with which to replace gasoline-powered cars at present. In the future we may use solar power for all of our transportation provided solar technology achieves significant advances. But that does not mean that solar power can be of no benefit to us today. Solar power would definitely be a good option to use in conjunction with gasoline. Many vehicle accessories such as interior and exterior lights could be run in the future from solar power. Hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius could be charged while running if outfitted with solar panels. In fact, a group of Canadian companies recently modified a Toyota Prius to operate with solar panels. They reported that through the addition of solar energy they could achieve an additional 15 km of distance without initializing the gasoline engine. Toyota has announced that they will be releasing a version of the Prius with solar panels in the future, and several other companies are hard at work with their own variants of hybrid-electric-solar and even pure solar powered cars.

So, don’t be shocked if fifteen years from now everyone you know is driving around in solar powered cars, and no one is worried about the price of gas!

Want to Start Making Solar Power at Home? Check out these instructions for building your own solar power. Includes videos, ebook, diagrams, and all the plans you need to get off the power grid and start saving some green while going green.

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