Would this water/ solar car work?

Question

ok so im making a solar/water car like a dam but to power the pump i used a solar panal 1by3 ft

how it supposed to work

1.pump pushes water through a turbine

2.generator turns making electricity

3.electricity powers motor

4. motor turns axel car should go

would it work?

p.s for pipe im using pvc

p.ss lol im 12

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Use solar panels to directly run a DC motor to move the car. If you have an AC motor use an inverter in between.

Current solar panels have a peak wattage of about 15W per Sq.ft so you can calculate how much power you will get.

Answer 3

yes it would but for the amount of solar panels you would need you might as well have a solar powered car but then you gotta drive it in sunny places like arazona

Answer 4

It will work fine if your going down hill. But If your using electricity to run the motor why do you have the turbine?

Answer 5

i really can't tell you for sure, but I am pretty sure you are going to need a bigger solar panel.  It depends on how heavy the car is when completed in the panel will be big enough.  If you have ever seen a solar powered car, they are covered in those cells.  Regardless, good luck with your project, and I have to give you lots of credit for trying.  It's really nice to see a 12 year old try to make a difference in the world by creating a "green" powered vehicle!!!!!!  good luck, and if it works, stick with it, and you never know......you might end up onwing your own car company one day!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

I'm assuming the solar panel powers the pump?  It looks like a very inefficient setup to me.  Every time you have to convert energy from one form to another, there is a loss of some energy.

It looks like what you're trying to do is convert solar power into electricity to run a pump to push the water through the turbine to create electricity.  The amount of electricity the turbine would create would be less than that required to run the pump.  Why not just use the electricity from the solar panel to power the motor and eliminate the pump and turbine?

You would need to connect the panel to an inverter/charger/controller in order to store the energy in batteries, keep them from over-charging, and convert the 12 volt energy into A/C current for the electric motor (unless there is a 12 volt motor out there.  If there is, you wouldn't need the inverter.)  Last I checked, solar panels were not yet efficient enough to generate the amount of electricity necessary to power a car for very long.