http://www.evalbum.com/838

They ’say’ they can get the first 10 miles commuting each day on the charge from the solar.

I reckon a better vehicle to do a EV conversion and to put a 1 kw array on, would be a light Van like a Toyota HiAce .
Take it easy
David

Conclusion: They drove around the world powered by grid electricity, with a bit of solar thrown into the mix. Not the worst way to promote QCells’ solar cells and a cool adventure for Louis Palmer, but not in the slightest way transferrable to a commuter car situation.
Which is what the press seems to make out of it.

The Solartaxi is a very light vehicle (500kg), full of solar cells, tows a trailer full of solar cells and batteries, has a top speed of 90 kph and charges from the grid during the stops. A stationary solar panel in Switzerland produces roughly the same energy they take from the grid when charging the SolarTaxi elsewhere, so net total it sort of runs on solar energy.

If you read their website, they advocate solar cells on your house, not on your car’s roof.

So the concept is thinkable. Is it commercially feasible, as in marketable-in-Schenectedy? Of course not. But Toyota is a global (meaning: non-parochial) company, so they might with justification chose to think of solutions to transportation problems in places like Africa. Where a petrol infrastructure is only semi-available, but solar is plentiful.

Bertel is right that the AP was sloppy with this. But what is there to criticize if Toyota is indeed concerning itself with solar?

As for me, I am enjoying this mild period between ice ages.

Such a thing is totally doable, and one could probably design such a thing to go 50 miles of normal use excluding interstate speeds. The other obvious option is a panel at your house that feeds the car each day. So yes, this is in some sense doable. It probably isn’t economical, but doable. Other than guessing 20% solar collection efficiency all the tech to do it is readily available now. So real collection is maybe 10% efficient. Double the area for collecting the sun, do it at your house to charge the car each day and you are there.

We could probably all have small 4 person vehicles with 50 mile range as long as we keep speeds in check that were powered by the sun for something like $100,000 each retail. Price on solar collection and good batteries needs to come down. Such things in our lifetimes are probably never going to be as powerful or versatile as what we have for the same money. But they aren’t beyond doing and one day their capabilities may have to do. And for the most part could do well enough now though we wouldn’t like it so much.

Good one! You get the Dennis Miller award for the day.

Has anyone emailed AP or the reporter to ask why they haven’t corrected their story? Or, how they got it so wrong in the first place?

I tried this once. It was a real education. Everyone should do it.

Cheapest ‘reporters’ available. Very little editorial supervision. Average consumer is just this side of retarded, err, ’special needs’. Been this way for a hundred years. Difference now is just the speed of dissemination.

Don’t worry, the Saudis are quite aware that solar is part of the future. They are investing lots of the money we have given them in solar tech. Good thing we’re not doing that…

Apparently the velocity of the lies has increased since Churchill’s day.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

This is the point here. There is nothing too stupid or too nonexistent for our “mainstream media” to reproduce if they think it fits with their worldview, which is not the worldview of people who think for themselves. It is at the point where “mainstream media” and “affirmative action” come together in a big politically correct nsfw mess, and we elect politicians to high office who do nothing but exemplify it.

This country is in for some interesting times when Mr. Obama comes out of hiding in Hawaii and actually takes office in a couple of weeks.

Most modules are mounted at an angle so the snow slides off. You can actually order Sharp modules for snow areas that can be reverse biased to heat up and melt off snow loads.

Patrickj :

The Maybach offers an optional semi-transparent module that powers a fan to cool the car when in the sun.

You can also get a cheap 2-5 watt module that plugs into the cigarette lighter to counter the self-discharge of a vehicle that will remain inoperable for long periods of times.

There is no way you are going to power anything like a conventional car on a normal duty cycle with only the PV modules on roof of the car. You would need to cover the roof of a 53′ X 8′6 semitrailer with the most efficient commercially available modules to power a plug in Prius being used as a commuter car.

There is actually a practical application for solar power in a car, though. It is ventilation and cooling sufficient to keep the temperature down on a hot day. This would reduce the size of the air conditioning system and increase the practicality of hybrids.

While some may propose photochromic reflective windows for that purpose, I’ll pass on having my car windows go opaque in case of an electrical failure while driving.

The wrongly quoted Nikkei story itself is non-news. I had solar power on Hawaii 20 years ago. If I would have had a plug-in car, I probably could have used its battery as a backup to my shack full of batteries 20 years ago also.

Must be a slow news day. Or a bad hangover.

Sure. Maybe if we lose the ozone layer completely. And the rest of the atmosphere while we’re at it.
Seriously, it’s a math exercise. Calculate surface area of car, the amount of sunlight hitting this area per day, factor in solar panel efficiency, charging efficiency…

…then forget it.

Bottom line: AP doesn’t employ anybody with an engineering background or basic understanding of science. Surprised?