The practical application of solar panels on a car are not for propulsion but for charging while parked. The typical car sits at work under the sun for 8 hours a day. With just 500W worth of solar panels during an 8 hour day, replenishes possibly 10 miles of range. Usually plenty enough to get back home for the small EV and commuting.
Agree, The panels would add maybe 5% for direct propulsion. But that is not how EV's charge. They charge while parked. And for someone at a low latitude with high sun angles and no access to charging-at-work would find it a fun application. Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Rhodes via EV Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 1:06 PM To: [email protected] Cc: Lawrence Rhodes Subject: [EVDL] Solar vehicles..just do the math. It seems people are underestimating the capacity of solar panels on vehicles. It is a simple math problem. Encapsulation is also a challenge. However I don't have the math to calculate how fast a 3.3kw solar system would push a 3000 pound vehicle. It seems you would need 8kw to push a Leaf up to 45mph. This is just a guess but it seems to me that a simple calculation of weight, CD, array size would be all you would need to calculate the usefulness of any solar vehicle. Stella Lux is capable of 45mph with a 1.5kw solar panel, a weight of 850 pounds(it can carry 4 people) and a CD of .16. If you have a 22 ft x 8' vehicle like an aluminum Ultravan at 3,000 pounds (which is less than a Leaf) you would have good range but calculating how much solar would fit, the CD which I think is under .3 and the speed possible with the max panels is beyond me. I do know that if you had a 3.3kw array you would be able to charge a 24kw pack in 10 hours making a useful vehicle. It might be able to do 20mph on solar. I bet Dave Cloud could figure it out. The Dolphin is a very cleaver vehicle. I wish I had some land to work on an Ultravan. Lawrence Rhodes -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20170927/66b38f0a/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
