Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing

Crash

Actually, I'm now seeing solar panels available to the consumer market with efficiencies as high as 45%. They're expensive mono-crystalline, but they're still 45%.

I understand what you're saying about the amount of energy it takes to move an electric car, but what you're forgetting to realize is that it doesn't only gather energy during use.

A) The car can be collecting energy all day while the car isn't in use.
B) They do say that it will be solar and grid charged.
C) If you have a full traction pack and you begin driving, solar power can help off-set the amount of energy used over time.

It's a good idea to me. Although, it's good that you know your math. I've done research on this too.

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2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary

drmike

Crash:

OK, stipulated that solar cells will reach higher efficiencies, say even 70%, but that won't change my areguement, it only makes the car shorter, so to speak.

A) The car can be collecting energy all day while the car isn't in use.

I included that. 40 minutes of driving, verses eight hours of collection.

B) They do say that it will be solar and grid charged.

Grid charged is not 100% solar power unless the grid is 100% solar.

C) If you have a full traction pack and you begin driving, solar power can help off-set the amount of energy used over time.

Totally true, no argument.

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Crash

If you put solar panels on your roof, the power it collects in the time you're not charging is power back to the grid. Just because every watt of energy isn't generated through solar power doesn't mean that you're not offsetting the amount of energy transfered during the charging state.

Here in Los Angeles, if you have solar panels on your roof and you're generating more power than your using, your power meter spins backwards and feeds that energy back to the grid. If you charge 40KW to the car, unplug and do not charge again for a few days or even a week, you can easily have charged back 40KW back to the grid, thus making it possible to have still charged 40KW totally solar powered.

By the way, you seem to be pretty savvy here, have you seen the Sterling Engines? There's a company that is building them right now for So Cal Edison and they're generating enough power from one solar energy dish to power 7 homes (up to 10). Each dish uses a 37 ft mirror to collect solar energy and direct it into a sterling engine... Solar power through thermal energy, not photonic energy. They're getting efficiency as high as 65%. They're more efficient than troff-style solar power.

Imaging if we had 3-4 of these dishes setup per block!!! I can only imagine how cheap and clean electricity would be.

__________________
2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary