Is it possible to create a wind/solar powered car?

Question

i was just wondering, because a wind and solar cross seems useful (coming from someone who doesnt know cars) and i wondered if an engine could be made to run on the wind a car creates while driving, with solar to initate power. is it at all possible? please no overly technical explanations, thanks!

Answer 1

Yah it actually is possible. There's a documentary about some Jamaicans who did it. Pretty sweet, but it only worked cuz they rarely have cloudy days.

Answer 2

what if theres no wind and no sunlight?

Answer 3

Well, I'm not sure if what you are talking about is possible, but I do know that there are already electric cars.  And wind and solar can be used to create electricity; so if you had an electric car and you used wind power and solar power to power your electricity, your car would be powered by wind/solar.

Answer 4

I recently heard on the news that Toyota is working on a new hybrid vehicle that would partly run on solar power. I saw the news clip in passing, so I don't have any other details than that.

I don't know that a wind powered car would be possible. There are many places in the world where there isn't enough constant, steady air moving to get/ keep a car going.

Answer 5

it would that more power to operate the car than the wind would create.

A better choice would be an electric car, recharged by wind generator, or solar panels.

However there have been solar cars, but the solar panels were too big for the cars.

Answer 6

No.   You can't get something for nothing.   Solar alone is able to power special "cars" though in a race in Australlia.   A windmill set up while the car is parked could help charge a battery though.

Answer 7

No. All electric cars are already here, but they require batteries. The amount of wind necessary to power a car would blow the car off the road. The current size of solar panels sufficient to power the batteries are larger than any car, including a Hummer.

Answer 8

You can't get any net energy from the wind a car creates while moving, because any energy you extract from that slows the car down by a greater amount, which reduces the wind, and so on.

People have created "land yachts" with sails that move like sailboats do. They're kinda cool, but they are so tall that they can't go under bridges. So you can't really use one on the road.

A better solution would be to buy or build an all-electric car and recharge it using a wind generator.

Answer 9

Well, it is possible to create a solar car:  http://americansolarchallenge.org/photos...

As far as the wind from the car alone being enough to keep the engine running, no.  You can't have the engine get its energy from the wind AND the wind get its energy from the engine.

BUT having a car run on the energy from the sun and the energy from the wind that is blowing anyway... maybe.  I don't know if the aerodynamics would work.

Answer 10

I guess so, but the solar powered one wouldn't work very well. I mean, what happens when its nighttime, or a cloudy day, or not windy?

Answer 11

Yes. Wind cars are sail boats on wheels and CNN videos

showed a guy with solar powered taxi yesterday. The taxi

was powered by a huge trailer with solar cells on it. It wasn't very practical but it was impressive . . . like a Mack truck

in size . . . light weight powered a small motor to pull a light load.

Answer 12

The laws of Physics are against you. You can't fool Mother Nature.

Answer 13

your question is "is it at all possible?" and the answer to that is yes but the real question you should be asking are is it conventional.

Answer 14

There are already solar powered one seaters, mostly out of colleges.

But a wind powered car as in a turbine is probably not a good idea.  At least not in the scenario you suggest.  The amount of energy going into the motor is what needs to come from the wind while driving.  But with the air resistance of the car and the reduced efficiency from converting wind power caused by driving into driving force will kill your idea.

There are 2 ways, however, it MIGHT work.  That the wind comes from the wind itself for the turbine, you use a sail.

Answer 15

the engine of a car can use energy generated by any means whether solar or wind but what we need to look at is how will the energy be transferred to the car...it is not possible to have a windmill turbine mounted on a car, as for the solar panel it is possible but the cost is huge and has disadvantages like nights and rains/ snow...an alternative is generate electricity via wind and solar methods and charge electric cars with it..or switch to hybrid ones that run on water..recently read about some asian country where a company designed a car that ran on water. a litre of rain or sea or any water took the car a great distance of 80 km in one hour