David, why must you think so logically?
On 8/22/2019 8:56 AM, EVDL Administrator via EV wrote:
On 22 Aug 2019 at 13:12, Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote:
The surface area for 3 kw of Sunpower Maxeon cells would be 8 feet by 23
feet.
You're talking about a vehicle 15% longer and 31% wider than the largest,
most bloated Chevrolet Silverado pickup. That's a 37% larger footprint.
Where are you going to park it?
This allegedly "green" solar vehicle would take up 157% more road and
parking space than a VW Polo, and at least 900% more than a bicycle. Where
on earth does that kind of personal vehicle make sense?
What's more, it won't work. Those 3kW PVs won't produce 3kW continuously.
Vehicles travel and park in shade, on cloudy days, in winter, at night, in
garages. Do you want to be the one to tell Joe and Jane Suburbanite that
they can't use their $50,000 garage to protect their $150,000 solar EV?
At the current state of the art, I just can't see standalone solar vehicles
as practical. Maybe they'll be marginally practical someday IF we see an
order of magnitude improvement in PV conversion efficiency, and IF that
miraculous new invention is made from some cheap and plentiful material in a
minimal-labor process requiring almost no energy input. But I don't see
that happening in my lifetime.
Besides, I just don't get why the idea of a standalone solar vehicle is so
compelling. You have to sleep, so put your PV on your house. Right now
that house is probably just sitting in the sun all day, converting the
sunlight to heat that you're pumping out with an air conditioner. Why not
capture that solar energy instead, save it with whatever method works for
you, and pump it into your EV while you sleep?
That kind of solar vehicle is simple, practical, efficient, and relatively
affordable. So why are we burning through person-hours developing
standalone solar vehicles that will never be affordable to anyone but the
top 0.1% income range, and have zero chance of ever seeing commercial
production?
You may have your own ideas, but I'll tell you what I think is one big
reason. Standalone solar vehicles are sexy. They snag the imagination of
politicians and rich philanthropists with limited science education. That
makes them a fabulous way to harvest grant money for both dodgy
"entrepreneurs" and legitimate but desperately underfunded nonprofits.
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator
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