Thin Film Solar Panel applied to car roof.
Firstly congratulations to Shai Agssi and his team on
Project Better Place.
I would be interested in the views of readers with regards
to placing Thin Film Solar on the roof of Project Better Place vehicles in
order to generate on-board electricity to the battery when the vehicle is
mainly stationary ie parked in sunlight for an extended period.
This would potentially extend the range between filling
stations, but may also lead to parking areas with a grid-connection where-by
the vehicle could act to supply electricity back to the power-grid.
If 24 cars were
connected to the grid for 5hrs per day peak sunlight hours x 3.120 kW = 15.6
kWh / day (DC), SMA generated annual yield (AC) 4390 kWh could be realized.
Now I know people will say that few people will park for 5
or more hrs in one place, and thin film solar has a few issues, but the
opportunity to place thin film solar on car roofs and tap into a parked cars
solar source and provide power
back to the grid opens up possibilities.
I hope the above opens up an interesting discussion for all.
Keep up the exciting work, and I look forward to driving
Project Better Place vehicle in Australia in the near future.
BrisBrad.
Solar Prius
Solar panel on the roof by
http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/
http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/articles/prius-white-paper.shtml
Solar Prius
Solar panel on the roof by
http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/
http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/articles/prius-white-paper.shtml
Thin film segue to Dysol
Down in Canberra is a developmental company by the name of Dysol ( http://www.dyesol.com , DYE) who are in the process of getting off the ground a process whereby ANY surface (as I understand it) will be able to be coated with a photovoltaic (PV) surfactant.
This is claimed to allow power to be produced even by non-direct, reflective, light. I have yet to see figures on the amount of power developed per unit area, but it is probably fairly low. They are talking large area building materials being the initial application for the product.
But if it <strong>is</strong> practical, then rather than PV on the roof, surely the option would be to coat the exterior of the vehicle with DYE's material, should it prove up to the power demand.
It is expected to be cheap to produce, and even if relatively inefficient would surely reduce the overall load on the primary power sources.
(p.s. Thanks BrisBrad for your nameology. I hope you don't mind if I've jumped on board the idea.)
(p.p.s. And thanks to the Project Better Place team. For the first time since the turn of the millenium, when I first saw the 100 year CO2 levels graph, I feel a glimmer of optimism.)
Park and Charge!
I think it is a great idea. I personally park in a parking lot for the 9 hours I am at work without my car moving. I also commute about 4 miles (8 total) to work. This would allow enough energy to make the 4 mile trip after charging in the parking lot all day.
Solar on car 4 times more expensive
The problem with solar cells on car, is that the electricity is 4 times more expensive.
Why?
Solar cells have a life time of 25 years. A car only half of that.
The car is not in good angle to the sun. So, half the amount you normally would get.
So, that quadrupples the price.
However, if solar cells are very cheap, they car makers will do it. Because of the convenience of not going to the station or to plug. If you only use your car for shopping, or use it irregulary, you can do it with solar alone. Especially when they get efficiencies of 30% or more. So, this will certainly be attractive for certain people.
Lucas
Thin Film Technology
Bris,
Thats a great idea. But do you think this is feasible, isn't solar panels need to be in specific angles to realize optimal performance. Isn't this technology not even proved to be efficient so far?
Naidu Saladi
Thin Film Technology
The best example of Thin Film Solar can be found by Oerlikon: http://www.oerlikon.com/thinfilm/ ,which I think will help explain Thin Film and the advances with this technology.
Even a standard flexible
Even a standard flexible Solar panel could be used, however I agree that cost is a major factor and therefore see that Thin Film will in the long-term provide the cheapest option, potentially colored matched to the product it is being attached and provide excellent performance.
In answer to comments on the angle of car roof affecting the performance of the solar panel, more and more solar powered bus shelters are being rolled out with curved roof lines, compared to a car roof which is considerably flatter for example my 4 door sedan roof lines is almost comparable to standard solar panel except where the roof curves slightly to meet the top of the doors and front and back windows . Any solar panel is affected by the movement of the sun, and the angle of the panel at a given time. A car roof especially SUV / mini vans provides excellent real estate for on-board power for EV's .
Specification and feature flexible solar panel
·Mono&polycrystalline silicon solar cell
·Laminated with PET,EVA,CELL,PCB,EVA&PET
·High efficiency,long lifetime,high reliablity,large area
·Can bend slightly
·Dimension:880*520*3.5mm
·Open circuit voltage:21.24V
·Optimum power voltage(Vm):18V
·Short circuit current(Isc):3.06A
·Optimum operating current(Im):2.78A
·Watts peak(Wp):50W
·Weight:4Kg
Nanosolar - Thin Film Solar - "solar on a roll"
http://www.nanosolar.com