Green Options » solar car

Electric Car Doubles As a Solar Panel To Power the Energy Grid

Christopher DeMorro — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:19:29 +0000

I am a firm believer that if electric cars are to gain widespread acceptance, they first need to be proven in America’s congested cities. Most city dwellers usually don’t drive that far, have access to alternate forms of transportation, and likely spend more time on their iPhones than in a car anyway. It is the perfect proving ground for electric cars.

The MINILUX Solar Car concept realizes this, and rather than serving as an expensive paperweight while sitting idle, it can actually return energy back to the grid. It’s pretty neat looking too, aside from those funky wheels.

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Fire Departments Turn to Solar to Stop Idling Engines

Alex Felsinger — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:22:25 +0000

The fire department in Shawnee, PA decided in July to experiment with solar panels atop one of their trucks, hoping the few panels would produce enough juice to power the many tools that otherwise are often powered by an idling engine. Months later, the firefighters report success.

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South Africa Sees Its First Solar Car Race

Dave Harcourt — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:43:16 +0000

This is a guest post by Dave Harcourt of Pretoria, who is active in information transfer for agricultural processing in Africa, mainly via the DIGIVU Blog.

South Africa, recently dogged by electricity shortages at the state-run generator (Eskom), is innovating strongly in the energy sector. I will be discussing examples of this innovation in future posts, but now for the first of several reports on newsworthy energy related events in South Africa.

South African Solar Challenge 2008

South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) was one of the supporters of the South African Solar Challenge 2008 solar car race, which ended at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria this week. Solar car races are by no means new, but this is the first time one has been run in South Africa. The race, which was noted in a recent post on solar cars, was organized by the Advanced Energy Foundation.

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Jump-Starting the Solar Car

Dr Vandana Prakash — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:08:05 +0000

In recent years, I hear more and more about developments in solar cars. I also hear frequently about solar car races [South Africa'08, North America'08, Australia '07]. Encouraging as these developments are, we desperately need a way to get these cars widely adopted and out onto the streets.

My vision is probably influenced by my life in a small Californian city and the ways of people here. In the recent times of energy crisis and skyrocketing gas prices, people are readily exploring alternatives such as scooters, mopeds, electric cars and small efficient cars. They are giving-up the comforts of large luxurious, air conditioned cars. A couple of recent articles on cheaper solar cars (in fact, hybrid ones running on solar energy mainly) really sparked hope in me - these solar cars would be ideal to try out in smaller cities.

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Alaska Police Pull Over Solar Powered Car, Think It’s a UFO

Andrew Williams — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:25:40 +0000

It’s not all about Sarah Palin in Alaska you know. The latest news from the last frontier (or should that be the final frontier?) is that Alaskan police have pulled over a solar-powered car, which they mistakenly identified as a UFO.

For almost two years, Canadian Marcelo da Luz has been driving his solar-powered car, the Power of 1 (Xof1 for short) across North America in an attempt to set a world distance record for a solar vehicle. When he reached Alaska earlier this week, the admittedly off-the-wall looking car was spotted by a concerned citizen, who dialled 911 to report a UFO sighting. Alaskan police quickly took off in hot pursuit, and pulled poor Marcelo over for interrogation.

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