Quote:
Originally Posted by aaron38
People who can't do math need to stop doing engineering. I've built a solar car, and the math doesn't work for that. Even at best efficiency, the surface area of all the windows on a car don't come close to running the drive motor for more than a few miles. 8 square meters of space grade high efficiency cells can over the course of a day produce enough energy to run an ultralight car for about a hundred miles.
The glass of a family sedan is 4-5 sq meters, but only a fraction can be pointed at the sun at any one time. At best 2 sq-m, 600W at the most. Barely anything against the 4400w-h battery in the Prius, and that's only good for 11 miles.
Solar windows are for the curtain walls of skyscrapers, not cars.
|
Yeah, that one line kind of destroyed the credibility of the whole article. It’s far more important that this technology be used on buildings anyway, because it will displace coal and natural gas, which are by far the major sources of greenhouse gasses.