Swiss Federal Lab Claims New World Record For Solar Cell Efficiency

Do the math on a solar powered car.....

Assume you could cover the entire top surface(s) of a small car with solar panels and let them charge batteries all day while the car is parked at work. Assume battery charging is 100% efficient: Panel Area ~4 m^2 (liberal, but I'm trying to make a point) Panel Efficiency 20.4% Time in sun 8 hours Sun angle derate 50% Solar input ~1kw/m^2

Then the batteries get charged with 1*4*8*0.5*0.204 ==> ~3.26 KWH A small car engine is rated at ~200 KW (i.e. Ford Focus Spec at 223 KW) If you average using only 1/4 the available power ===> 50 KW The saved energy in the battery will move you for 60min*3.26/50 ===> ~4 minutes

So, you run out of juice about the time you hit the on-ramp of the freeway.

The point being, this isn't going to work unless you have more efficient cells, more efficient vehicles, more solar panel area, or a combination of all three.

Actually the Nissan Leaf gets about 4.5 miles per KWH. [youtube.com] So if the panels on the car really can generate 3.26 KWH in only 8 hours that's 4.5 miles * 3.26 KWH = 14.67 miles just on solar power. That's pretty significant IMHO, that would be worth adding solar panels to the car, even if you have a place to park and charge it at night. For example, let's say your daily commute is 25 miles, that's 175 miles a week. For the sake of simplicity let's say the Leaf gets 87.5 miles per charge, so the user would cha

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/6-gC0hnND2Y/story01.htm

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