Well, I wouldn’t expect a bunch of engineering students to be on the cutting edge of style anyway, so I’ll cut them some slack in that department.
Comment on ‘World’s first off-road solar SUV’ just drove across Morocco powered only by the sun
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ugly as sin but I’m down if I can drive it mostly solar and plug in when needed in a more temperate climate
magnetosphere@kbin.social 11 months ago
trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
I completely agree. Function before form.
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 11 months ago
You wouldn’t, there is actually very little energy in solar for an array the size of a vehicle roof, and it would likely take days to recharge.
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I can’t YET, this is clearly early technology, in a few years who knows. Remember we went from not being able to fly to landing on the moon in a lifetime
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
nope. not “yet”. just not physically possible. even with 100% efficient panels.
There just is not enough energy in the sunlight hitting the car. You would have to somehow make the sun shine brighter. Which is not really possible.
Phen@lemmy.eco.br 11 months ago
The amount of power is limited, but can’t the tech improve to make cars that require less power?
Gsus4@mander.xyz 11 months ago
Wait wait, how are you calculating that? If you take a generic solar irradiance of 6kWh/day/m^2^ and let’s assume the car has a solar panel area of 3m^2^ with a solar panel efficiency up to 30% and the cosine for solar angle (say ~0.7), given the best 137 Wh/km around, that gives around 30km a day. That’s already enough for my commute.
All this neglects shade, won’t work for all latitudes…but it can also be upgraded with improved battery storage/weight, improved solar panel efficiency and maybe even the area of the car top and shape of panels can be improved (e.g. make them extendable). At worst, you just top it up to 500km from the grid every weekend and that will make up for the difference.
Metacortechs@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Fuck, don’t give them ideas, climate change is bad enough as it is…
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The problem is, there just isn’t that much energy in sunlight, so even a perfect solar panel that captured 100% of the sun’s energy wouldn’t get you very far.