A solar-assisted Prius

the solar panels on the roof are cool

The ones on the front hood are dorky looking

and the dash looks like he stole it from Erkel

 

If you drive away from the sun, any Prius will be solar assisted. Granted, it's a very small assist, but I'm going to count those little photons smacking into the back of my black Prius. I probably get an additional boost from the re-radiated infrared.

Tom

 

Hey, Mr Bruninga is a fine E.E. and an innovator, give him some credit for his technology ingenuity

 

On the car is simply the wrong place to put expensive panels. Park in the shade. Park in a garage... whatever. Too many ways to waste the panels that could be producing all day if they are properly oriented on the roof of your house.

He's quoting the energy that the panels can create. After conversion and charging of the batteries - the extra eight and air drag is going to offset a large portoin of the gain. At best, you could probably end up with one free mile a day in perfect conditions. That's a bunch of money, energy and pollution (to make the panels) for one mile/day. I love the idea. And one day it'll probably work.

 

I read there are new panels coming that look like regular house roof tiles

so maybe there will soon be photovoltaics that stick on and lay flat against curved auto surfaces

Here are some solar panels done by Pininfarina on a Ferrari 612

The install is much neater as the panels are under glass

In this case the solar panel is used to run a fan to cool the cockpit

I did a semester at the Art Center on Auto Design where I designed a solar electric hybrid, the car had a Large flat panel on the back to capture sunlight, the front sort of looked like an F1 car

 

Having lived off grid for ~15 years I have a few observations. If you are interested in solarizing anything, I suggest you visit:http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/index.php. There is a world of very informed and usefull information.

My sense is that you would be way farther ahead adding solar to your home or work place than the car. The panels and installation would be way cheaper for a similar out put. Panels need air under them to keep them cool as thier effeciency drops dramaticly with higher temps. (Thats one reason the solar roof tiles haven't taken over,,,they aren't nearly as effecient). Also the battery management systems are far simpler for either an off grid or grid tie applicaton.

What solar newbies don't understand is how large (comparativly) the panels need to be in order to be effective. The little car icon represents 50 watt/hours of regen on the screen. A 50 watt panel in full sun, at optimum temp would put out 50 watts/hour. A 50 watt panel measures ~60"X16" depending on who makes it. If you do the math, you will realize how many panels it will take to give you any meaningful gain.

The same money spent on solarizing the car would have a much better effeciency if the same money were spent on a fixed array, and then you plugged the car in.

Icarus

 

photovoltaics are so 20th C

This is 21st C solar power

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/

I believe you can build a smaller version to power your house & recharge your plug in hybrid

 

To add to darelldd's critisism, what are the coefficient drag losses by putting these panels on the car? I doubt they will be as seemless as sheetmetal and the texture would likely reduce aerodynamic efficiency. Maybe not as much as I think though?

 

For those interested in solar shingles, go here:

http://homepower.com/files/sampleissue/HomePowerMagazine.pdf

 

I believe the Aptera is supposed to have a solar powered fan to cool the interior when parked in the sun.

 

Those kind of solar panel mounting solutions are great on an R&D basis, but for peak efficiency I'd be surprised to see any solar panel mounted at that angle producing more than 60% of it's actual rated capacity.

Neat idea, but I'd rather install a solar array at home or a wind turbine, followed by buying a PHEV (if Toyota actually do bring them past the testing stage) or converting a regular Prius to a Prius +