----- Original Message ----- From: "Horace Heffner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> In sunny places like California adding some solar power may eventually add some useful flat-territory cruise range, or just help cover the charge cost for the 10 mile return home commute. Yes. Most shopping trips, school drop-offs and even work commutes are shorter than 10 miles anyway. This is an excellent idea for a Prius-type hybrid (especially with the improved nano-tek batteries which have been announced). Given that a sunroof is already silicon dioxide anyway - and given that amorphous silicon is the way cheaper alternative (although not as efficient) to crystalline cells - and already the Chinese are starting to dominate by offering units at 25% of the cost of US made crystalline cells... http://www.alibaba.com/catalogs/52806/Solar_Cells_Solar_Panel.html Perhaps it won't be more than a few years before many normal sun-roofs are enlarged (like the two panel design of the Mini-Cooper which covers almost the entire vehicle roof) and then converted for solar power generation... the roof panels can be left slightly open to increase air circulation in the car and to limit the internal heating (w/ low-power exhaust fan also). One could imagine going many days or weeks with no resort to the gasoline engine - but it is very advantageous to have it there anyway. Maybe you could get by with a one-liter instead of 1.5 L engine, especially with the quick charge batteries? Jones BTW this recent surge in Chinese solar panel suppliers is a good sign, even for us ... and an indication of how they plan to limit their future dependence on fossil fuels. The government over there must have been actively pushing and giving incentives to get so many new companies started so soon (unlike here). By switching from crystalline to amorphous silicon, it seems clear that you must accept a drop in your conversion efficiency by 30-40% but your net cost goes down by 75-80%... so in effect you can double your "bang-for-the-buck"... sounds good to me.
