One rarely discussed alternative method for powering automobiles is solar energy. Solar powered cars, while not very common, exist in a variety of forms. This includes cars with numerous solar panels directly attached to them, electric powered vehicles which use an external panel to charge their batteries, and electric cars or buses which are charged by a solar power plant.

Cars with directly-attached panels are, according to wikipedia.org, not a realistic form of transportation at present. However, they do exist as experimental vehicles and very small race cars. It seems more likely that vehicles which are partially powered by the sun may become popular at some point in the future; perhaps an automobile with a panel on its roof for charging its electrical systems, but otherwise powered by gasoline or diesel, would be a realistic option.

Electric cars which are indirectly powered by photovoltaic panels offer a more feasible option. Panels mounted on a home can be used to recharge them, and energy of this type is available through regular electrical lines in areas with solar power plants. Electric vehicles available in the United States, which are listed on the fueleconomy.gov website, include the 2000 Nissan Altra, 2000-03 Toyota RAV4 electric version, and 2001 Nissan Hyper-Mini.

According to the website of Naresuan University in Thailand, the university operates forty solar energy powered buses on their campus and recharges them at a small solar power plant at the university, which appears to have a large number of batteries for storing the energy. It is not clear as to whether or not the buses have panels directly mounted on them as well, but this would be advantageous when the large surface area of buses is considered.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Solar Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.