Are there good inexpensive solar battery chargers that could be used with hybrids?
Question:
Answer:
There are two small details here that need to be considered, the first a practicality, the second an environmental point.
1. A hybrid car typically may need 30-80 KWH of electricity to fully recharge. If you covered all the horizontal surfaces of your car with the best quality solar cells (efficiency wise), you might be able to generate about 300 WH in BRIGHT sunlight.
Unfortunately, this is not only a drop in the ocean but would add a few thousand to the cost of the car AND perhaps 50-100 kilos in weight. This weight more than offsetting the small gains to be had by charging.
2. The last time I checked, the amount of energy that is required to make the solar cell (from refining the silicon to the finished product) is so great that most solar cells will never actually generate the amount of energy that was used to create them in the first place. The VERY long life ones WILL do so - years down the line.
So in short, good thoughts but until they are MUCH more efficient, much lighter, last longer and use less power to create, they are not ideally suited for hybrid cars / th environment just yet.
none as i have known,,
Define inexpensive; a good 200 Watt panel is in excess of $ 400 US. To charge a car in a reasonable amount of time would require several hundred sq feet of panels assuming a 48 volt charging system - In short "No."
And, by the way a " true " hybrid does not require unattended charging.
The Venturi Astrolab is a solar / electric car that has just been announced that uses solar energy to run the vehicle and recharge the batteries when it is stationary. A full recharge takes about 5 hours of sunlight. This is a vehicle meant for short trips from the early adopter who have about $100,000 to spend for the wow factor of this vehicle.
You can read more here: http://www.hybrid-vehicles.net/venturi-a...
As far as solar battery chargers for automotive use there are several that can be found here http://www.siliconsolar.com/solar-batter... but you also have to remember there are no plug-in hybrid automobiles yet. General Motors and Toyota have both announced that they will be introducing plug-in hybrids in 2007, however.
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