Solar powered car idea worthwhile?

Question

It is possible to transmit power wirelessly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6129460.stm

Why not take parking lots or other parking areas, and simply cover them with solar panels, then have "outlets" that beam any power to a car with a built in receiver that parks in that lot?

Any extra power left over can be piped into a city grid during the day when loads are at their peak, or if the power generated by the panels were insufficient, you could draw on the grid.

This would work with either full-electric or hybrid cars, and offer a unique way of charging without plugs or effort on the part of the driver. You park your car, turn it off and a sensing system does the rest.

Answer 1

Yes. You would not even have to beam the electricity. You could have people plug into it when they park, if they have an electric car or a hybrid.

Also, especially in the summer people prefer to park in the shade. Since this area would be covered with solar panels it would be shaded.

You could probably charge people extra to park in the shaded area. The extra revenue revenue would help offset the cost of the solar photovoltaics.

Answer 2

Efficiency and cost are the issues.

Nicolas Tesla wanted to send power wirelessly, and

did it. But it was, and is, horribly inefficient.

Solar power is here and is usable. It is more expensive

than electricity from most other sources (coal, nuclear, hydro,

geothermal), and it goes away at night. So half the time your

investment is worthless. Electic cars are coming, and they

are the first step to reducing use of fossil fuels.

Answer 3

They conveniently don't tell how much energy was required in the low range (appx 7 ft) lighting of the 100 watt bulb.. nor do they list the actual current and voltage at the bulb....

so there's no data on how efficient their power transmission was.

Unless the power beam was tightly focused and the majority absorbed by the receiving coil... the efficiency is going to be DISMAL.  Something on the order of 1% of transmitted power getting to the bulb.

So.. since solar panels are appx 2% efficient at gathering solar energy... and we can expect at best 5% (giving them a lot of bennefit of doubt) efficiency of transmission... you would beed a solar panel the size of a Wal Mart Super Center's parking lot  to supply one car.  There won't be any extra to give to the power grid.

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The reason solar power for cars isn't being used already is that a panel the size of the entire roof of an SUV isn't enough to supply a golf cart.

Answer 4

An electric car is what you are thinking of. Powered by solar energy from outlets in parking garages. This has happened and then stopped in California. There was a number of electric cars and the outlets around the city's. They were normal cars that  had the same and in some cases better performance they many compact cars.  You should watch the documentary Who Killed The Electric Car. There is the means to make this happen right now! Big corporation make billions on oil fight to keep it from going on. Awareness and change of attitude is only the first step.  Great Question

Answer 5

Most of the answers supplied are pretty far off from accurate.  The short answer here is solar power costs more than power from the power company at present.  So installed LOTS of panels to recharge the cars would not be finacially attractive.  (Unless you got a govt grant to pay for the solar, and someone still paid too much for that use compared to grid power).  A car roof does not have enough space to supply more than a few miles per day driving with a very efficient car and the whole roof covered in a place with reasonable sun per day.  Solar power on a clear day at noon supplies about 100 watts per square foot, when pointed right at the sun.  The solar power on my home's roof is ~15% efficient solar cells.  Some are currently being made and being tested that they claim are ~50% efficient.  At that rating, you could harvest about 50 watts per square foot.  1 horsepower is about 746 watts (a little more really due to losses).  Hybrids have what, 30 horsepower or sol electriv motors.  So you would need 60 square feet of solar power at noon (pointed right at the sun) to run that, about 8 by 8 feet and that is with cells at 50% efficiency that are not even being sold yet.  Current costs are $3 to $5/watt minimum to buy (capacity wise).  I hear the price will come down as much as 80% over time.  How much time, who knows?  I am all for plug-in hybrids, GM may put one out next year.  Expect a lot of progress in solar, hybrids and batteries over the next few years.  But if everyone waits until they get better, no one buys what is sold now.  And if no-one buys what is sold now, no one is going to spend the (BIG) money to improve on what they are selling now.  Makes the problem somewhat tough, you know?

Answer 6

The solar panels for that much power would be tremendous. I put a $15,000 solar panel in the Ecuadorian jungle just for a repeat or station. About 3 months later a wind blew it all over the jungle,.so we did it again and welded the steal frame in . It is very expensive.

Answer 7

Doesn't work if you live in Seattle or Rochester.  You would just need AAA everyday to give you a lift.

Phoenix, however, hmmmmmm........

Answer 8

sounds great

Answer 9

solar power is the best,in Europa all homes are with solar power

Answer 10

That sounds like a great idea.  Please go to www.preignitioncc.com/ca35 and check out the hydrogen fuel cell these guys have come up with.  Click the hfac link and watch the video. these guys have the patent on this technology.  There are a couple in my town and the owners are very happy with the results.  ( I install them).  If you have any questions you can get back to me.   Curt

Answer 11

Solar panels generate 120 watts per 10.5 square foot section per hour. It would be simpler to line the top of the cars with solar panels so they have it anywhere they go...

Having the panels on the cars is not meant to give it power while running...but it could be used to get a fer extra amps while accelerating which is the most power-consuming time of any vehicle. Or used when it's parked outside to give a little free recharge while the person is at work or shopping or what not.

The major problem with solar panels is that the amount of ohms they produce to make electricity travel down a wire is very short. To make it go further causes a lot of heat which becomes a problem.

I've seen cities that have had hybrid buses for over 30 years. But they have arms on top of the bus that reach up to make contact with electric lines over the road in down-town areas. This could be implemented into cars so that once they reach a conjected hi-polution area they could turn off the gas engine and extend the arm.

(I know, the appearance of a huge arm on your car would look pretty dammed ugly) What about freight trucks though? The arm would be nearly invisible on top of the container.

Answer 12

great idea, but it need money and more hybrid cars need to e bought

Answer 13

Novel idea. I like it.

But heres "Why not...?"

Like most things, capital investments would be huge.  It would take companies huge investments in these solar parking lots to make buying a electric (hybrid?) car equipped with a receiver desirable for a consumer. Or a conversion kit for an existing EV/hybrid.

Then you have to convince the car companies to make the receiver standard.

On top of that the car companies, the electric lot companies all have to agree on what electronics standards to use so all the cars & parking structures could be compatible...

questions that need answering:

who pays for the electricity if the power generated by the panels is insufficient?

Answer 14

Much easier to simply put outlets in the parking lots that electric cars could plug into. Also, solar panels are EXPENSIVE. $1,000 for one solar panel, with hundreds needed to cover one parking lot. Sure, you could do that anyway, if you had the money to do it, but they would not make enough power to charge up all the cars that parked in the lot. The idea that you could make extra power for the grid indicates to me that you do not understand how much power a car needs and how little even the best solar panels make.

Oh, and who pays the cost? You aren't going to give away free electricity are you? If you are, can I have some for my house? My summer electric bill is pretty high because of the power hungry air conditioner. My air conditioner uses about 10 times less power than a small car, but it still costs me over $100 a month to run in the summer.

Answer 15

It won't work.  It would take larger than a single parking spot of solar panels to supply the power required to run a single electric car.  Besides, in a lot of areas GW means more clouds, less sun.

Electric production, storage and use all have to be managed as separate entities.  Most important will be the storage, not transferring the energy wirelessly.

I wonder if this type of technology is what they mean when they speak of cell phones killing bees?

Answer 16

Great Idea!!!! If you covered fedex field with solar cells, it would cost $630,000 and it would make 112 kilowatts. 112 kilowatts would power one 150 horsepower motor.

Answer 17

I love your idea. I think it is VERY worthwhile and it has to be feasible. These cars are in development but they can only go 20 mph or so right now. I think 50 years from now your vision of parking lots with solar panels and outlets will be reached.

Answer 18

As of now using resonating coils MIT researchers have succeeded in transferring just 60 W power over 6 feet. Wireless power transmission is a bit far off right now.

In the tropics, the insolation at midday is about 80 w / sq.ft. About 1/6 th of this can become electricity at a high cost. Though sunlight is free when it is not cloudy, the cost of garnering it is high.

Answer 19

worth it. we'd be using an energy that won't run out for billions of years and won't damage the enviroment.

Answer 20

I think the way to go is to have this technology at intersections to recharge. You'd still want a charger at home, you don't need to fully charge, just extend the range.

The technolgy that MIT is developing using frequencies and magentics is 40% efficient, which is awful, but even so electrics are more than double the efficiency of gas.

If they could put these at stop lights in the same way they have pressure sensors currently to trigger the lights they could quite possibly pump a few miles at every stop light.

The solar part I'm not sure is feasible, but maybe it will be someday.

Answer 21

sounds great we can even have ones where they make hydrogen, oh wait, it's still only like 1% eefficient at Best, so it would have to be frigging monstrous for one car.

Answer 22

its a great idea but definitely would cost much more.  We definitely need to figure out another way to get our vehicles to run because we use more fuel then anybody.