By combining the best solar panels on the market with the most efficient batteries available, Toyota, Sharp and NEDO (Japan New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) have teamed up to conceive an electric vehicle that runs on solar power and does not need recharge .
This means that the vehicle would be truly independent of the charging facilities , thus overcoming one of the biggest drawbacks of electric cars: their limited autonomy and the need for ‘electric gas stations’ every few kilometers so that the vehicle does not get stranded. .
Superior to hybrids
Both hydrogen-powered cars and hybrids would be far behind in performance compared to a solar car of these characteristics, especially in terms of cost and autonomy .
Due to the fact that the photovoltaic panels companies are working on to make this vehicle a reality are only 0.03mm thick , like a thin skin, they can be used to cover a wider variety of surfaces , including areas curves in the body of the car, in addition to the roof, hood and other areas.
This, added to a greater efficiency of the photovoltaic panels (the efficiency is higher than 34%, compared to 22.5% of the previous model), would allow the vehicle to be charged while it is in motion , something that until recently was impossible . Not surprisingly, its power generation power is 860 watts .
According to NEDO representative Mitsuhiro Yamazaki , if such a car were driven four days a week for a maximum of 50 kilometers each day, it would never need to be recharged . More specifically, the vehicle would circulate almost 45 kilometers thanks to the static load, a distance that can reach 56 kilometers by adding the moving load .
This new Prius PHV model would thus surpass the Lightyear One , a car with solar panels on the roof that offers a range of 400 km in winter without having to recharge and up to 800 km in summer.
Although an excess of optimism could be sensed around this project, the truth is that there is little left for this model to become a reality. However, these vehicles would not be suitable for all types of roads : especially in regions where there is little sun, they would still rely heavily on charging stations.
Solar energy accounts for less than 0.2% of total current energy , essentially because its capture and distribution are too expensive. But there is more and more progress in this field, although we are still far from being able to supply ourselves only with the energy of the Sun. However, if technology continues its course, in a few decades it is possible that we will have much more efficient converters of that enormous source of energy that is the star king, as well as more efficient batteries: we must remember that if the energy that the Sun produced in a single second could be stored, it could meet the current energy consumption of the United States for the next million years .
