Product Code Database
A solar electric vehicle is an electric vehicle powered completely or significantly by direct solar energy. Usually, photovoltaic (PV) cells contained in convert the sun's energy directly into electric energy.
A concentrated solar vehicle uses stored solar energy to run a heat engine, such as Rankine, Stirling or Brayton cycle, of the piston and crank type directly powering the vehicle or a free-piston linear generator (FPLG) powering a hybrid electric car system.
The term "solar vehicle" usually implies that solar energy is used to power all or part of a vehicle's propulsion. Solar power may also be used to provide power for communications or controls or other auxiliary functions.
Solar vehicles are not sold as practical day-to-day transportation devices at present, but are primarily demonstration vehicles and engineering exercises, often sponsored by government agencies. However, indirectly solar-charged vehicles are widespread and Electric boat are available commercially.
Solar cars have been designed for solar car races and for public use. Solar vehicles must be light and efficient to get the best range from their limited captured power. pound or even vehicles would be less practical because the limited solar power would not take them as far. Most student built solar cars lack the safety and convenience features of conventional vehicles and are thus not street legal.
The first solar family car, Stella, was built in 2013 by students in the Netherlands. This vehicle is capable of on one charge during sunlight. It weighs and has a 1.5 kWh solar array.
Stella Lux, the successor to Stella, broke a record with a single-charge range. During racing Stella Lux is capable of during daylight. At Stella Lux has infinite range. This is again due to high efficiency including a Drag coefficient of 0.16.
The average family who never drive more than a day would never need to charge from the mains. They would only plug in if they wanted to return energy to the grid.
Solar race cars are often fitted with gauges and/or telemetry, to carefully monitor the car's energy consumption, solar energy capture and other parameters. Wireless telemetry is typically preferred as it frees the driver to concentrate on driving, which can be dangerous in such a car without safety features. The Solar Electric Vehicle system was designed and engineered as an easy to install (2 to 3 hours) integrated accessory system with a custom molded low profile solar module, supplemental battery pack and charge controlling system.
Some of the students that built Stella Lux founded a company, Lightyear One, to commercialize this technology.
An American company, Aptera Motors, has also been founded to make efficient solar electric cars for the public. As of January 2023, first customer availability is expected in 2024.
In Germany the company Sono Motors was working on a solar electric vehicle, the Sono Motors Sion, that was supposed to be on the market in 2023. However in February 2023, Sono Motors terminated the Sion program and announced it would focus exclusively on being a Solar Tech Company.
Note that all battery-powered electric vehicles may also use external solar array sourced electricity to recharge. Such arrays may also be connected to the general electrical distribution grid.
Squad Solar is a neighborhood Electric Vehicle Side-by-side with a solar roof and can be charged relatively quickly from a normal outlet.
Solar buses are to be distinguished from conventional buses in which electric functions of the bus such as lighting, heating or air-conditioning, but not the propulsion itself, are fed by solar energy. Such systems are more widespread as they allow bus companies to meet specific regulations, for example the anti-idling laws that are in force in several of the US states, and can be retrofitted to existing vehicle batteries without changing the conventional engine.
Later more practical solar bicycles were built with foldable panels to be set up only during parking. Even later the panels were left at home, feeding into the electric mains, and the bicycles charged from the mains. Today highly developed electric bicycles are available and these use so little power that it costs little to buy the equivalent amount of solar electricity. The "solar" has evolved from actual hardware to an indirect accounting system. The same system also works for electric motorcycles, which were also first developed for the Tour de Sol.
In May 2007 a partnership of Canadian companies led by Hymotion altered a Toyota Prius to use solar cells to generate up to 240 watts of electrical power in full sunshine. This is reported as permitting up to 15 km extra range on a sunny summer day while using only the electric motors.
An inventor from Michigan, USA built a street legal, licensed, insured, solar charged electric scooter in 2005. It had a top speed controlled at a bit over 30 mph, and used fold-out solar panels to charge the batteries while parked.
The area of photovoltaic modules required to power a car with conventional design is too large to be carried on board. A prototype car and trailer has been built called Solar Taxi. According to the website, it is capable of 100 km/day using 6 m2 of standard crystalline silicon cells. Electricity is stored using a nickel/salt battery. A stationary system such as a rooftop solar panel, however, can be used to charge conventional electric vehicles.
It is also possible to use solar panels to extend the range of a hybrid or electric car, as incorporated in the Fisker Karma, available as an option on the Chevy Volt, on the hood and roof of "Destiny 2000" modifications of , Italdesign Quaranta, Free Drive EV Solar Bug, and numerous other electric vehicles, both concept and production. In May 2007 a partnership of Canadian companies led by Hymotion added PV cells to a Toyota Prius to extend the range. Hymotion modified Prius using solar power accessed 14 September 2007 SEV claims per day from their combined 215 Wh module mounted on the car roof and an additional 3 kWh battery.
On 9 June 2008, the German and French presidents announced a plan to offer a credit of 6–8 g/km of CO2 emissions for cars fitted with technologies "not yet taken into consideration during the standard measuring cycle of the emissions of a car". This has given rise to speculation that photovoltaic panels might be widely adopted on autos in the near future. accessed 28 September 2008
It is also technically possible to use photovoltaic technology, (specifically thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology) to provide motive power for a car. Fuel is used to heat an emitter. The infrared radiation generated is converted to electricity by a low band gap PV cell (e.g. GaSb). A prototype TPV hybrid car was even built. The "Viking 29" Use of a Thermophotovoltaic Generator in a Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Seal et al., Vehicle Research Institute, Western Washington University Bellingham, Washington 98225 was the World's first thermophotovoltaic (TPV) powered automobile, designed and built by the Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) at Western Washington University. Efficiency would need to be increased and cost decreased to make TPV competitive with fuel cells or internal combustion engines.
PVTrain concluded that the most interest for PV in rail transport was on freight cars where on-board electrical power would allow new functionality:
The Kismaros – Királyrét narrow-gauge line near Budapest has built a solar powered railcar called 'Vili'. With a maximum speed of 25 km/h, 'Vili' is driven by two 7 kW motors capable of regenerative braking and powered by 9.9m2 of PV panels. Electricity is stored in on-board batteries. In addition to on-board solar panels, there is the possibility to use stationary (off-board) panels to generate electricity specifically for use in transport.
A few pilot projects have also been built in the framework of the "Heliotram" project, such as the tram depots in Hannover Leinhausen and Geneva (Bachet de Pesay). The 150 kWp Geneva site injected 600 V DC directly into the tram/trolleybus electricity network provided about 1% of the electricity used by the Geneva transport network at its opening in 1999. On 16 December 2017 a fully solar-powered train was launched in New South Wales, Australia. The train is powered using onboard solar panels and onboard rechargeable batteries. It holds a capacity for 100 seated passengers for a 3 km journey.
Recently Imperial College London and the environmental charity have announced the Renewable Traction Power project to investigate using track-side solar panels to power trains. Meanwhile, Indian railways announced their intention to use on-board PV to run air conditioning systems in railway coaches. Also, Indian Railways announced it is to conduct a trial run by the end of May 2016. It hopes that an average of 90,800 liters of diesel per train will be saved on an annual basis, which in turn results in reduction of 239 tonnes of CO2.
Japan's biggest shipping line Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corporation said solar panels capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity would be placed on top of a 60,213 ton car carrier ship to be used by Toyota Motor Corporation.
In 2010, the Tûranor PlanetSolar, a 30-metre long, 15.2-metre wide catamaran yacht powered by 470 square metres of solar panels, was unveiled. It is, so far, the largest solar-powered boat ever built. "PlanetSolar News." PlanetSolar. In 2012, PlanetSolar became the first ever solar electric vehicle to circumnavigation the globe.
Various demonstration systems have been made. Curiously, none yet takes advantage of the huge power gain that water cooling would bring.
The low power density of current solar panels limits the use of solar propelled vessels; however boats that use sails (which do not generate electricity unlike combustion engines) rely on battery power for electrical appliances (such as refrigeration, lighting and communications). Here solar panels have become popular for recharging batteries as they do not create noise, require fuel and often can be seamlessly added to existing deck space.
There is considerable military interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); solar power would enable these to stay aloft for months, becoming a much cheaper means of doing some tasks done today by satellites. In September 2007, the first successful flight for 48h under constant power of a UAV was reported.[6] BBC News: Solar plane flies into the night accessed 10 September 07 This is likely to be the first commercial use for photovoltaics in flight.
Many demonstration solar aircraft have been built, some of the best known by AeroVironment.
All current solar powered spacecraft use solar panels in conjunction with electric propulsion, typically ion thruster as this gives a very high exhaust velocity, and reduces the propellant over that of a rocket by more than a factor of ten. Since propellant is usually the biggest mass on many spacecraft, this reduces launch costs.
Other proposals for solar spacecraft include solar thermal heating of propellant, typically hydrogen or sometimes water is proposed. An electrodynamic tether can be used to change a satellite's orientation or adjust its orbit.
Another concept for solar propulsion in space is the light sail; this doesn't require conversion of light to electrical energy, instead relying directly on the tiny but persistent radiation pressure of light.
Solartaxi toured the World from July 2007 till December 2008 to show that solutions to stop global warming are available and to encourage people in pursuing alternatives to fossil fuel. Palmer suggests the most economical location for solar panels for an electric car is on building rooftops though, likening it to putting money into a bank in one location and withdrawing it in another.
Solar Electrical Vehicles is adding convex solar cells to the roof of hybrid electric vehicles.
The 2010 Toyota Prius model has an option to mount solar panels on the roof. They power a ventilation system while parked to help provide cooling. There are many applications of photovoltaics in transport either for motive power or as auxiliary power units, particularly where fuel, maintenance, emissions or noise requirements preclude internal combustion engines or fuel cells. Due to the limited area available on each vehicle either speed or range or both are limited when used for motive power.
|
|
