What ever happened to solar powered panels?
Question:
Answer:
The technology did not die out. It is in fact quite alive and well, and there exist many different manufacturers of solar panels and devices utilizing them.
The problem is that the technology has not yet advanced sufficiently to generate large amounts of power with solar panels, at least not with panels of any practical size and weight. You can easily buy a panel which will trickle-charge your car's battery during the day, but nothing that can generate anywhere near the power required to actually move a car's mass at any significant speed. You would need to buy panels with a very large surface area to make any significant amount of power, and these panels would be very heavy and very expensive.
they still make them,i have them on my camper to charge the batteries, they are not cheap, however. you can get them at r.v. supply stores. in fact the ones they make now, are quite efficient, many people in the countryside use them for their homes, i dont know why the development for cars is so slow, though.
I saw a commercial the other night for a fan you hook onto the top of your car window, and it's solar-powered. (supposedly cools off your car while gone...as opposed to just cracking the windows some). Also, I've seen traffic lights and emergency beacons on the highway powered by solar panels.
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