From: EVDL Administrator via EV <[email protected]> >> 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?... >would take up 157% more road and parking space... >Those 3kW PVs won't produce 3kW continuously... >can't use their garage... Good points David, well hammered in. But as Lawrence said, this is not a daily driver; but more likely for a truck/bus/RV/camper (like the Ultravan). >At the current state of the art, I just can't see standalone solar vehicles >as practical. They'll be practical for *some* people; just not most people (at least for the forseeable future). I know a guy with one. It's a Wrightspeed trike. He attached a 2'x4' PV panel as a roof/sunshade. It powers an electric bike motor and battery. It's light, simple, and fine for local transportation. I've seen electric golf carts with PV panels on the roof that get most (sometimes) of their charging simply they sit idle most of the time, out in the sun. >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. That makes sense for most people; but again, there will be a few exceptions. We have close to 100 trees on our lot, so no part of our roof gets sun all day. But our driveway *is* in the sun for most of the day. The PV panel on our Prius therefore does get enough sun to keep its 12v battery charged. >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. I think the general public is fascinated with the idea as well. They imagine a car that they'd never have to buy gas for. :-) That's true for any EV as well. But I think the average Joe thinks buying the electricity for it would cost about as much as buying gas. -- Excellence does not require perfection. -- Henry James -- Lee A. Hart http://www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
