Solar Power

With gas prices spiraling out of control, many consumers are tired of being told that there's no way to avoid soaring oil prices and are looking for other options. Gas-powered cars are one of the greatest sources of pollution, but with the exception of hybrids and a few traditional electric cars, there aren't many other options of travel for people living in bigger countries.

Public transportation, if you happen to live in a big enough city for it to be widely available to begin with, is often unreliable. Is there a way for us to continue enjoying the convenience of cars without the prices and pollution of gas? With a little more experimentation, we soon could enjoy the pollution-free and no-cost solar power car.

After an initial installation investment that is soon offset by state and government rebates and tax credits as well as the money one saves by no longer paying utility bills, solar power has been responsible for free, clean energy that powers homes, businesses, the internal commodities of RVs, and some energy plants.

Solar power works via a series of solar modules, or non-reflective glass panels, that collect the photon energy in sunlight. This energy is converted into DC electrical power and then transferred to an inverter, which converts the solar power into AC electrical power, or usable electric power. Excess solar power is stored in batteries for use at nighttime and on cloudy days.

What's stopping the world from losing its dependency on oil and hooking up one of these systems to a solar power car? A car that runs entirely on solar power has not quite been achieved yet-or at least, not as a commercially-feasible solar power car that can keep up with basic highway traffic.

Cars are extremely heavy and consume large amounts of energy. There isn't enough room on the roof of a car to house the amount of solar power modules that would be needed to make a solar power car a reality. Even without extra amenities like air conditioning, heating, and electric-powered windows, an entire car covered with solar power modules still wouldn't have the necessary amount needed to run the solar power car at high speeds.

Still, the scientists who do research on solar power are close to making the solar power car a reality and available for all. The first experiments with using solar power to run a "car" occurred in 1984 by Greg Johanson and Joel Davidson. These initial solar power cars didn't look much like "cars" at all; they were three-wheelers, but they could reach an excess of 40 miles per hour on solar energy alone.

Experiments with solar power cars have continued over the decades. In 1997, Masaharu Fujinaka, a Japanese researcher, led a team on a cross-country road trip spanning Europe and the United States-in a 100% solar power car. The solar power car, adapted from a traditional car, ran on solar modules and rechargeable batteries and reached a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour, although it lacked extra amenities like air conditioning.

With the rising popularity of hybrid cars and the optional solar power car kits that can charge a hybrid's batteries with sunlight instead of utility electricity, the future seems bright for the solar power car.