Could cars/vehicles be built in such a way as to take power from solar cells used to pave roads and side walks

Question

Could cars/vehicles be built in such a way as to take power from solar cells used to pave roads and side walks

Answer 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcXLFDuAJ...

Answer 2

You can power electric cars that way by connecting them to the power grid, that's how light rail, subways, monorails, and bumper cars work.  The tricky part is you'd have to put either overhead wires above every traffic lane or bury metal rails within each traffic lane.  That would be expensive.  Solar cells are not very durable, so making roads and sidewalks out of them would be impractical.

Answer 3

There are people who have invented the things long back but they dond want it to get disclosed so that it can fetch them a higher price.

Just rescently there was a person in news who is going around the world on tour on an electric car.

Answer 4

Solar cells used to pave roads and sidewalks????

Where do you people come up with these ideas???

Get out of your car and walk or bike if you want to save the planet.

Answer 5

Electricity travels at the speed of light, there is no real need to create roads that generate the electricity locally by solar power.  

There is a gent here in Ontario who is trying to develop a road surface that will generate enough electricity at intersections to power traffic lights.  That works by using the weight of the vehicles travelling over the road to compress hundreds of simple, tiny, spring-loaded magnet and coil generators.

I don't know if his system is economically feasible, but it is definitely an interesting idea.

Answer 6

What you suggest is very similar to how bumper cars or the subway work.  Using (photovoltaic) solar power as the source of electricity is very inefficient.

The current solar technology is not efficient enough to be useful to the environment.  The total amount of energy that is required to produce the quality of silicone and crystals needed for a solar cell is MORE than the amount of energy the solar cell will ever be able to collect in it's lifetime.  People never look at what it takes to create the item they only look at what benefits the item itself has.  Solar cells create an energy DEBT that can never be repaid.  Solar is only useful for power production in places that are extremely remote like the jungle, non-populated areas, and space.

The only current positive energy use of Solar is if you are using the heat from the sun to warm up water that is run through pipes for residential use.  Or on an industrial level you can use a large array of mirrors to focus the suns heat to one spot and use that to heat water into steam and turn a turbine to generate electricity.

Answer 7

Solar cells work best when placed in direct sun light. There are plenty of roofs, awnings and sides of buildings that could be installed with solar panels. These could be used to feed the national power grid. Which would reduce need for power generated via polluting sources.

There is a question of cost though. There are a few projects underway at present that have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of solar cells.

http://solar.anu.edu.au/level_1/research...

http://www.dyesol.com/index.php?page=Hom...

There are also many ways for an electric powered car to draw power from a grid system. This can be as simple as building a power rail in a central traffic island. A grid powered electric vehicle does not need to carry a large battery. They can be made much lighter and more efficient than any other vehicle currently available.

Peak hour would probably need supplementary power sources of electricity. This can be supplied from stationary generators batteries or other storage devices. Just to make a point here; a standard motor vehicle engine can drive a generator to supply enough electric power to move at least half a dozen grid connected vehicles. (Probably more).

There is no reason that the power generator needs to be lugged around in a vehicle. They work much better stationary and pollution controls can be much more effective. (No need to carry them around either).

It may even be possible to pave roads in some sort of energy collector some time in the future.

Good luck and keep the suggestions flowing

Answer 8

No, theres no solar cells that could be used that way.

Answer 9

Solar panels are only efficient when in direct sunlight.  Clouds, buildings, nighttime... all keep this idea from being feasible.

Answer 10

they could... but it would be impractical.

The solar cell roadways would be in the shade of the car... and they would be easy to damage... and they would be very slick, thus dangerous to drive on.

Also you need appx 1/2 acre of solar cells per car...