Can you use wind energy to charge an electric cars battery?

Question

It may seem silly but cant you put an additional fan where the radiator fan is on an electric car to use the cars forward movement to turn the fan which in turn will charge the cars battery? It makes sense to me. What do you think?

Answer 1

Nothing is free, especially energy.

It would generate electricity.  It would use more energy to push the car thru the air, though, than if the fan was not there.

Conservation of energy

Answer 2

Many people have similar ideas. What you are talking about is a perpetual motion machine. That is a machine that makes the power it needs to run itself. Like an electric motor turning a generator that makes electricity to power the motor itself. All such ideas are doomed to failure because of the law of conservation of energy. Energy cannot be created of destroyed, only changed from one form to another. The generator changes energy of motion, in the form of a turning shaft, into electricity, while a motor changes the energy of electricity into energy of motion, in the form of a turning shaft. Neither the motor nor the generator is making energy, they are just converting it. The generator cannot make any more power than the motor turning it provides. Less actually, because no motor or generator is 100% efficient. In the case of a fan on a car to charge a battery, a fan small enough to fit in front of the radiator would not provide nearly enough power to charge the battery. A big enough fan would make power by taking energy of motion of the car, causing an air drag force that would slow the car, resulting in less wind and less charging, until the car stops with a dead battery.

Now where does the energy of a gasoline car come from? From the chemical energy of the gasoline. Gasoline and oxygen molecules exist in a higher energy state than carbon dioxide and water molecules. Burning the gasoline releases that stored energy. The problem is that there is a limited amount of oil stored inside the Earth, and burning it adds carbon dioxide to the air.

Answer 3

Try make a car that can be charged with wind power

Answer 4

As others have said the short answer is no - you would have produced perpetual motion if you could.

you could use a wind generator when the car is parked, (and cars are usually parked more than driving) but parking is not usually in the optimum wind position and the size of generator would be small.

Rather than carry the weight of a generator around it is better to plug-in to recharge at home or work or service station, from your own or grid connected renewable energy supplier.

the Pheonix SUT, http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/, can be recharged in 10minutes.

Answer 5

Solar panels on the roof would do better. You dont have the problems with drag like you would with a wind turbine. The additional weight would be marginal, but all the time the car spends sitting in te sun is purge energy.

Answer 6

The size if a wind generator with a capacity to recharge a vehicle drive battery would be prohibitive (as big as the car). But, there is a handy system called "regenerative breaking". When the accelerator is backed off the forward momentum of the car turns the drive motor into a generator, putting a charge back into the battery.

The first hybrids that came out ran on electrical power and the batteries were re-charged by a gasoline engine. I believe the first Toyotas and Hondas were like this.

Answer 7

"Yes" but only when you use a cohanda effect system.

see:  www.santanaeffect.com

Answer 8

Your method might extend the range of your electric car

(slightly) but the car would use electricity faster than your fan-

generator would produce it.  It would be more efficient to have

the motors driving the wheels to recharge the batteries while

coasting (trains  have this technology).

Answer 9

No. It would use way more energy to push the car fast enough to charge the power source. Even a small generator would need an inordinately large fan to turn it because of the horsepower needed to make it charge enough. Might have to wait until more advanced types of power generators to be invented.