My Perfect Automobile » Solar

Use Solar Power to Charge Your Hybrid or EV

Larry Bell — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:41:18 +0000

Solar power: Fisker Karma’s roof features solar panels

Last week’s SxSW Eco conference in Austin, Tex., featured a new online tool that helps car owners calculate the cost savings of building home solar stations to power their electric and hybrid vehicles. The app provides a detailed, yearly cost breakdown for people who want to know the line-by-line expenses related to an investment in solar panels. It even takes into account loan amounts and interest rates connected to financing a solar collection station, right down to monthly payments, installation costs, and service charges.

Solar Power: Video

Adding a solar station onto your home is one thing, but keep in mind that some vehicles already feature supplementary solar cells. One of the most well known is the Fisker Karma, a hybrid-electric car that has solar panels in its roof. The following video clip shows how the roof collects the sun’s energy and converts it into usable electricity to power the car’s climate control systems. Standard in all Fisker Karmas, the glass roof is the largest such device offered on any production car.

Solar Power

The key to the new app is finding out how much money you can save by going solar and buying an electric or hybrid car. Creators of the software say it is the best way to find out if you can afford to power your EV or hybrid from a set of your own solar panels. Car owners who go solar no longer need to worry about the fluctuating cost of grid electricity, because they are making their own.

For more about solar panels and how they work, see the following information link, which goes into detail about all the uses and applications of solar energy. Automakers are even incorporating solar panels into their vehicles (see video, above), and industry is increasingly using supplemental solar power systems to create auxiliary electricity for factories, assembly plants, and office buildings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com

Larry Bell

Larry Bell + is My Perfect Automobile’s Genius Author, but we call him ‘The Expert‘. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Expert Author. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Tesla Offers Free Charging for Life

Larry Bell — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:26:24 +0000

Tesla solar charging station

Tesla Motors revealed a network of fast charging stations that runs on solar power and is free for Tesla owners to use. The network of charging locations was constructed in secret and currently covers most of California, but will soon encompass the entire U.S. Company co-founder Elon Musk said at a special event this week that the stations will charge a Tesla battery to full in about twenty minutes, the average time for a rest stop.

Tesla Charging: Video

The video clip below, at about ten minutes, is longer than most we post here. If you watch even the first few minutes, the importance of it will begin to sink in. It is simply the short presentation Elon Musk made just a few days ago when he unveiled the Supercharger system. In fact, no other electric carmaker has anything like it, and as Musk says, you can now drive your Tesla electric car on sunlight, forever, for free.

Tesla News

Tesla has partnered with SolarCity for the photovoltaic panels which will create electricity for the cars. In fact, as Musk states in the video above, the panels have been designed to generate more power than the cars will use, thus allowing for a net addition to the grid.

Right now, only Tesla’s 85- and 60-kWh models will be able to use the Superchargers. The company’s base model 40 kWh car, as well as other automakers’ electric vehicles, are unable to use the units. A similar array of charging stations for Tesla cars is slated for Europe within the next few years.

For all the latest news about Tesla Motors, there is no better place than the company’s official website. Unlike most other car manufacturers, Tesla uses its site as a primary news outlet to announce developments about new models, financial information, and other relevant topics.
http://www.teslamotors.com

Larry Bell

Solar Car Still Setting Records

Larry Bell — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:46:14 +0000

Solar car in the Arctic

This latest video blog from the Power of One solar car project features stunning photography of the Arctic Circle and nearby areas. The world’s most popular solar car has now logged almost 24,000 miles, approximately the circumference of the globe, and is still chugging along. The sleek, otherworldly vehicle glides along on some of the most treacherous terrain of the far north, and does it all on nothing but solar power.

As you will see in the video, this is no backyard kiddie project. In fact, XOF1 is a highly sophisticated machine that contains almost 900 solar cells on its body, with the ability to store enough electricity on a sunny day to travel 130 miles in total darkness. One of the most common questions the owner gets is, “How fast does it go?” The answer is simple, and surprising: The XOF1 tops out at 85 mph, with the ability to go from zero to 60 mph in just six seconds. The car’s electric motor is able to propel the vehicle for 310 miles on a bright, sunny day.

Solar cars have not gotten near the media coverage that electrics and hybrids have, and for good reason. The science of using solar energy to power automobiles is still in its infancy, but is making advances every year.

For all the data (and there is plenty of it) about Power of One’s solar car project, see the official site at http://www.xof1.com/
The site contains all sorts of details about the route, the team, and the inspiration behind the project. Since the Power of One solar car seems to always be in the news, the website has an extensive listing of updates about the current location of the car and its drivers.

For an overall look at solar-powered cars and their history, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car, where you will learn how the cars are constructed, see how their batteries are set up, and find links to solar-car racing sites.

Larry Bell

Across the U S on Less than 3 Gallons

Catherine Siverts — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:13:24 +0000

The original target was to go across the United States from Tybee Island, Georgia, to Long Beach, California, in 10 gallons of gasoline or less. Well, the achiever of this mighty feat is none other than Middle Tennessee State University Professor Cliff Ricketts.

From March 4th to March 8th, Professor Ricketts crossed the continental United States with just 2.15 gallons of gasoline used. Of course, several other sources of energy were employed for this four-day trek, but the point of the endeavor was to prove that it could be done and that, were gasoline to find itself unavailable or unfeasible as a source of energy (due to scarcity, cost, etc.), that everyday consumers would not find themselves stranded with no means to get around.

As far as what actually went into this amazing journey, Professor Ricketts put together a support team and essentially had a small fleet of vehicles with which to make the journey. The vehicles used were a 2005 Toyota Prius hybrid, a 1994 Toyota Tercel, and a 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid. The traveling support team consisted of eight individuals, including a hydrogen expert and an electrical expert.

All in all, the first leg of the journey, undertaken on March 4th, spanned 521 miles and reached to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This entire way, not a single drop of gasoline was used, with the vehicles instead being run on solar power and hydrogen power from water.

The second leg of the journey spanned an additional 521 miles and the team ended up in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Only an eighth of a gallon of gasoline was used in this leg, with the remainder of the trip being powered by the sun and hydrogen.

The last two days, reaching from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Long Beach, California, used the 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid, for which an ethanol mix was used to power the car.

While this might not be the easiest way to get around at the moment (what with an 8-man support team and two back-up vehicles), it does prove an excellent point. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen with gasoline as a fuel, there are other options, as well as the extant technology to use them.

Catherine Siverts

Catherine Siverts is My Perfect Automobile’s Expert Author, but people call her Cat. Here is her bio: My Perfect Automobile. Catherine lives in San Jose, CA and is also a Dedicated Member of the My Perfect Automobile Team. Catherine is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Nerdy Stuff (power), Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars!

Cost of Solar Panels Expected to Drop Even More.

Larry — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:12:12 +0000

Shi Zhengrong Solar Panels

Dr Shi, founder of Suntech, the largest solar company in the world expects the cost of solar power to continue to drop. Around 2001 solar power was about $6 a watt. Now it is $1. In other words 6x cheaper than it was 10 years ago. He states that the global photovoltaic industry grew 30% in 2011 and is expected to grow another 20% this year.

With this increase in supply we can expect prices to continue to drop another 5% to 10% per year. Suntech, located in China, saw annual sales of $3.1 billion last year, an increase of 7% over the year before.

If you have ever considered installing solar panels on your roof, now is the time to pursue this. Combine this with driving an electric plug-in car such as the Leaf or Volt and you could soon be driving completely for free. Recently we interviewed a Volt owner, who over half a year of driving his car has yet had to tank a single drop of gas and gotten his electricity for free from the solar panels on his house.

Dr Shi expects that this year China will install an estimated 4 to 5 Gigawatts, the rough equivalent of a nuclear power plant. Although today solar accounts for only about 1% of the total global energy market, he predicts that by 2050 solar will account for 25% of our electricity.

Larry Judkin

Larry Judkin + is My Perfect Automobile’s General Manager, but people call him Lar’. Here is his full Blog: My Perfect Automobile. Larry lives in San Jose, CA and is also the Co-owner of My Perfect Automobile. Larry is a lover of the Automobile as well and shares a passion for Concept, Hybrid and Electric Cars…

Green Energy Firms Hanging Tough

Larry Bell — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:09:27 +0000

Jaguar Mark XXI concept car

In spite of recent setbacks, green energy companies are sticking it out during tough economic times. Solar energy companies and small electric car manufacturers were hit by the news about Solyndra’s government-related downfall and Ampera Motors’ demise. Most recent analysis by investment banking firms, however, shows an alternative fuel and transportation sector that is healthy despite a small number of isolated failures.

Significant New Investment
In all the talk about solar energy company Solyndra and its problems, most media attention has ignored the firms that have picked up the slack, notably HelioVolt Corporation, which has recently snagged a $50 million SK Group investment. Interestingly, the fact that a non-Asian entity got the SK contract says much about the trend. When Solyndra was at its peak, it was unable to make much headway in Asia due to undercutting by Chinese competitors. SK Group is based in South Korea.

As for the electric car business, Ampera was a tiny player and had not even delivered a production model to the public by the time it went under. In fact, the EV investment horizon is thriving, for large, medium, and small players alike. Nissan, Ford, and GM are just three of the big firms that are investing mountains of cash into the EV market. All this as U.S. charging infrastructure grows by leaps and bounds.

A green green car

Good News Makes Weak Headlines

One of many success stories is Better Place Inc. The firm builds battery stations that swap battery packs and recharge them all at once. BPI has attracted significant investment cash from giants like General Electric, to the tune of $200 million and counting. Another player in the battery sector, Bloom Energy Corporation, recently locked up a $150 million investment package for fuel-cell development. In all, the electric vehicle, solar energy, and electric battery business segments of the economy continue to steam (or is that surge?) ahead, in spite of the headline-grabbing negative stories that seem to sell more advertising space for big media organizations.

Larry Bell

Building a Solar Station at the Speed of Light

Larry Bell — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:41:07 +0000

GE’s solar carport station at Plainville, Connecticut has gotten a lot of press. Maybe you’ve seen some photos or read the articles on myperfectautomobile.com. What you have not seen is the complete construction condensed into less than two minutes. Using GE Evergold products, the station can fuel up to 20 EV’s per day without using any energy except solar power. The Inovateus design allows any excess power to be sent back into the grid. Don’t turn up the sound. There is none! This is a visual you won’t soon forget, courtesy of GE.

Larry Bell