Solar Charging For Electric Cars? Could It Work?...

[LibocalypseNow]

I'm certainly no scientist or engineer and that's why i'm asking this question. We are currently observing how a Heat Wave in the North is stressing their power grids. So how would millions of new electric cars on the roads affect these same power grids? My guess is that it just isn't possible to have millions of new electric cars on the roads. I just don't see how the power grids could handle the added stress. Even if we added more Nuclear Energy to the mix,i just don't see it working out. Nuclear Energy also brings quite a bit of baggage to the table as well.

The only conclusion i have been able to come to is solar charging. Some sort of solar panel would have to be attached to the electric car. It sounds like it would be very expensive and i'm not sure how it would affect night driving either. Just a thought anyway. I really would like to hear your input on this. I'm sure there are many of you on this board who have more knowledge on this stuff than i do. So fire away. Thanks.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Another idea i had would be to use solar power to actually keep our electricity plants going in the day time but then switch them over to regular electricity output at night. Just spit-balling here. Like i said,i'm no expert on this stuff.

 

[MikeK]

I am totally ignorant about the technology but last night I saw a news clip of a solar powered airplane that had successfully flown for 26 hours. its top speed was something like 55mph, but I'm sure that will be improved.

It didn't say where the collector panels were situated or what they cost.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Yea i really do believe that harnessing the Sun's awesome power is the only option left for us. I thought about Wind but that's just not gonna do it in the end. Massive Wind Farms take up way too much space and kill a lot of our wildlife. The Sun seems logical.

 

[Mr Natural]

If they can sell those little solar powered garden lights at Home Depot for $4 each, surely someone somewhere has the wherewithall to expand that technology to do other more important things.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

If they can sell those little solar powered garden lights at Home Depot for $4 each, surely someone somewhere has the wherewithall to expand that technology to do other more important things.

Yea that's what i've been thinking for a long time. We need to use the Sun's awesome power to power our nation and this certainly includes our automobiles. The rest of the options just seem like temporary band-aids to me. That's just my take anyway. Thanks.

 

[westwall]

Solar power is certainly an attractive possibility especially for the sun drenched west. The major problems are still the extreme cost that puts it out of the reach of most households and it's relativley poor efficincies. In areas where it is possible geothermal is by far the best way to go. It is still relatively expensive but the efficincies are much better than solar so the costs should drop faster.

Wind power on the other hand is still good for small local scale energy production but little else.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Yea and what about those cold & sunless days in the colder regions of our country? How would solar charging work in those conditions? Hmm?

 

[edthecynic]

I'm certainly no scientist or engineer and that's why i'm asking this question. We are currently observing how a Heat Wave in the North is stressing their power grids. So how would millions of new electric cars on the roads affect these same power grids? My guess is that it just isn't possible to have millions of new electric cars on the roads. I just don't see how the power grids could handle the added stress. Even if we added more Nuclear Energy to the mix,i just don't see it working out. Nuclear Energy also brings quite a bit of baggage to the table as well.

The only conclusion i have been able to come to is solar charging. Some sort of solar panel would have to be attached to the electric car. It sounds like it would be very expensive and i'm not sure how it would affect night driving either. Just a thought anyway. I really would like to hear your input on this. I'm sure there are many of you on this board who have more knowledge on this stuff than i do. So fire away. Thanks.

Nanotechnology!
Solar collectors can be made from ink.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWrvNcvNTE&feature=related]YouTube - Inside Nanosolar - Thin-Film Solar Startup[/ame]

 

[Old Rocks]

Yea and what about those cold & sunless days in the colder regions of our country? How would solar charging work in those conditions? Hmm?

Libo, solar is an excellant power source in any part of the nation. It is getting cheaper every day now. Dupont manufactures panels now that sell for $120 and put out 100 watts.

A 5 kw grid parallel invertor can be had for about $2500. Solar would put electricity on the line precisely when most needed in the summer. And most of the electric cars would be charged at night, when the grid has the least demand.

If one is capable of doing the mounting work themselves, one can have a 5 kw system for under $10,000 today.

What is needed now is a distributed grid, and a federal law that allows homeowners and commercial establishments to sell their excess power back to the utility at a substancial per centage of the residential retail rate. At least 75%.

[ame=http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=FJY-epayVcc]YouTube - New Solar Panels from DuPont[/ame]

 

[Old Rocks]

Cold won't affect them, the cloudy days will definately cut the amount of power they generate by a major amount. However, the thin film have an advantage on the silicon cells there. At a certain point, under low light conditions, the silicon cells just quit. The thin film continue to put out power as long as there is even a little bit of light. Just not very much power.

 

[Mini 14]

I have a friend who is putting in solar in a house he is building now. If he weren't incredibly wealthy, he couldn't afford to do it (total solar capability in a dual system for a 9,500 sq/ft house).

Its got to get more affordable if it is ever going to be a serious player in the US energy market.

I do agree that it is the logical "last stop" in power. When we figure out how to harness it affordably, we're done.

 

[edthecynic]

I have a friend who is putting in solar in a house he is building now. If he weren't incredibly wealthy, he couldn't afford to do it (total solar capability in a dual system for a 9,500 sq/ft house).

Its got to get more affordable if it is ever going to be a serious player in the US energy market.

I do agree that it is the logical "last stop" in power. When we figure out how to harness it affordably, we're done.

At the end of part 2 they show the cost and break even time, about 4 years. These are not thin film panels which are much less expensive.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rRF6iZRagA&feature=related]YouTube - Part 1 New Jersey 5.6 KW PV Solar Installation of a Enphase Micro Inverter Sharp Unirac[/ame]

 

[Old Rocks]

Solar five years ago was very expensive. That is no longer the case. And it will get much cheaper in the next five years. There are several serious nano-tech materials coming online that can boost the efficiencies of thin film to 40% or even higher.

 

[skookerasbil]

Nobody's going to drive them............not in America anyway. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many guys like driving multifuel vehicles like me...................

burns rubber and gas

There is a sliver of the population that prefers to drive gay SMARTCARS, some lurk on this forum. But most men wouldnt be caught dead in one of those fairy ass cars. Thats just the way it is s0ns............

 

[editec]

Electric cars serve one purpose...they limit airborn pollution IF and ONLY IF the generation of electricity ALSO limits pollution.

Right now, it is my understanding, photovoltaic electicity isn't capable of replacing the net energy we get from hydrocarbons.

Neither can biopower, incidently, and that source of power never will solve our energy needs, either.

 

[edthecynic]

Nobody's going to drive them............not in America anyway. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many guys like driving multifuel vehicles like me...................

burns rubber and gas

There is a sliver of the population that prefers to drive gay SMARTCARS, some lurk on this forum. But most men wouldnt be caught dead in one of those fairy ass cars. Thats just the way it is s0ns............

Urban Dictionary: penis car

Any flashy, expensive, and/or fast car that a man uses to make up for his small cock.

 

[Old Rocks]

And this little electric would rip Kookybill a new one on the drag strip or top end.

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds: It Has Motors In Its Wheels : TreeHugger

A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.


Explains Martin Boughtwood, PML’s MD: “Until now, most electric vehicles have been little more than souped-up milk floats, limited by range and speed, with compromised performance. For those with a green conscience who also value an enhanced motoring experience, there is still something missing.

“Working in partnership with our customer, Synergy Innovations, we set out to demonstrate what our electric wheel technology is capable of. We simply took a standard BMW Mini One, discarded the engine, the disc brakes, the wheels, and the gearbox. These components were replaced by four of our electric wheels, a lithium polymer battery, a large ultra capacitor, a very small ICE with generator (so small it almost fits alongside the spare wheel), an energy management system and a sexy in-car display module.”

 

[LibocalypseNow]

A lot of good ideas. Thanks all. I do think the electric car could be a good thing. I just think we have to sort out how our power grids are going to handle all the added stress. The grids seem to be struggling right now so adding millions of electric cars to the roads could be a big problem. It would lessen our dependence on foreign oil though. It would also be better for the environment. So it really just comes down to the power issue. How do we provide power for all these millions of electric cars? I really would like to see them figure out how to use solar energy for this power. I guess we'll see though. Thanks again for all the replies.

 

[westwall]

And this little electric would rip Kookybill a new one on the drag strip or top end.

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds: It Has Motors In Its Wheels : TreeHugger

A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.


Explains Martin Boughtwood, PML’s MD: “Until now, most electric vehicles have been little more than souped-up milk floats, limited by range and speed, with compromised performance. For those with a green conscience who also value an enhanced motoring experience, there is still something missing.

“Working in partnership with our customer, Synergy Innovations, we set out to demonstrate what our electric wheel technology is capable of. We simply took a standard BMW Mini One, discarded the engine, the disc brakes, the wheels, and the gearbox. These components were replaced by four of our electric wheels, a lithium polymer battery, a large ultra capacitor, a very small ICE with generator (so small it almost fits alongside the spare wheel), an energy management system and a sexy in-car display module.”

I've been following the development of this little hybrid for awhile. It looks very promising for sure. A little disingenuous as regards the claim of 640 bhp though. It's only 160 bhp per wheel. You don't get to multiply them! Other than that it is a neat little car.