Will time came that solar panels would replace gas as a power source for vehicles?

Question

i have once read an article about the upcoming inventions of vehicles. i saw a model of a vehicle that is entirely powered by a solar panel and a small wind mill on its back. would this be the start of the domination of solar panels and the end of usage of fuels? what do you think? perhaps if you are an expert, you know these upcoming inventions.

have a nice day to all! ! ! ! !

Answer 1

It would violate the laws of Physics. No. It may be that some day we could use solar to make Hydrogen which can then be used in cars. We can now use Solar to charge batteries, but it takes a lot of area of panels to get much charge. To make enough H2 to power all the cars would probably take an area the size of RI.

Answer 2

I would say it is possible.

Currently, solar cells aren't that efficient.  So they are going to have to improve their efficiency to get a maximum amount of energy out of a small area of solar panels--nobody wants to drive a boat around.

They have been doing research using Carbon Nanotubes (c**s)--which are amazing little buggers--which has proven in lab tests to greatly increase the effiency.  They also have been doing plenty of research in developing thin films to coat windows with a transparently solar panel layer.  

So eventually they could coat and entire car in solar panels.  Cars still require a lot of enery to run.  I guess in combination with a windmill to convert the created wind (from driving) to energy, it is possible.  I feel like it would still need a back-up power source for cloudy days.  

It'd be pretty rad if they pulled it off--even if only in the lab.  I do feel that they will develop a car on ONLY reuseable energy soon.  And i cant wait.  Hopefully, one day we'll be free of being dependent on fossil fuels.

Answer 3

Sooner then you and I can think. Tech. is running approxamitly 85% effiecncy (solar panels) and increasing daily.Tech. is advancing so rapidly, the only hold up is funding and , of course government control, insurance liabilities, and that list continues only slowing the ball

Answer 4

absolutley not

until we stop letting our addiction of foreign oil companies buy out patents for hundreds of non-gas powered vehicle models and ideas

Answer 5

with solar cell efficiency being improved, it is possible that eventually we may have a vehicle that uses solar cells to keep batteries charged. it will require a change in battery technology also that allows the batteries to charge quickly as well. as for not being able to charge the batteries on a moving car with wind power, that is wrong. the  GM EV1 used two wind powered alternators to charge the batteries when the car was moving. granted they were not as effective as they could have been due to alternator bearing technology at the time, but they did work. also the ME163 used a wind powered generator to power the electrical system in those aircraft as well.

Answer 6

TIME will tell :P

lol, honestly a lot of them guys involved in this thing say we'll never run out of things to use fuel for.. minimized, maybe.. totally replace? dun think so, fuels are too powerful

Answer 7

I don't think that cars will be fully powered directly by solar power, because photovoltaics are not very efficient.  In order to power a large, heavy car, you need a lot of energy.

However, it's possible that many cars will be indirectly powered by solar energy, via a solar station recharging a battery.  In fact, Tesla has teamed up with Solar City to do just that with the Roadster:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/green-living/...

As solar and electric vehicle technology advances and becomes more affordable, we may start to see this coupling allow for zero emissions vehicles.

Answer 8

Haha, unless the windmill functions like that of the jets on the futurama's space ship (propelling the universe backwards while the ship stays still) i'd say you were looking at a "model" of a childs dream.

A windmill is an engine powered by the wind to produce energy. If the car is "moving" it is essentially creating simulated wind. To reduce gas mileage, cars are made more aerodynamic so that less "wind" is created thus lowering the drag on the car. Essentially the less it gets hit by the wind, or the easier it can move it out of the way, the less drag, and the less fuel used. So what is a giant wind catcher going to do? Slow the car down.

EDIT: Windmills in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM can create MORE energy then the energy LOST due to drag! Its the laws of physics, no such thing as free energy. Creating wind and then using it to absorb energy WOULD be free energy and thus is not possible (don't buy into all those magnet motor and so forth scams).

In a more technical sense...

No free lunch, also, no free energy!, you can not charge a system by means of using the energy the system is outputting.  You can't use a battery to recharge itself, and you can't use a windmill to charge a moving car. (ONLY standing windmills actually absorb energy)

As of now, the solar panels we have are pretty inefficient, between 8-16% i think? Somewhere around there, they are nowhere near the capability needed to drive even a small 1 person vehicle (i'm talking a leightweight bike shaped vehicle, as i've tried) let alone something like a car. They could integrate solar panels into hybrids, but judging by how useless the hybrids we have today are, i'm guessing its not profitable enough to the car companies to do so.

A full size solar panel, the large rectangular ones you see about the size of "some" car's roof's will absorb about 125watts per hour (10 watts per square foot). The Prius (god help us that thing is a huge awful lie) uses up to 28 hp (21 kW) 21,000watts per hour. So you can see how solar panels are just one brick in the wall.

Answer 9

I have put a solar powered site in the Ecuador jungle at a remote site,supplied only by helicopter. It would furnish about 500 watts. The solar panels cost $10,000 . It lasted about 4 months before the wind storm blew them all over the jungle.