Peri Hartman via EV wrote:
I think what would be interesting, perhaps not so practical, would be to design an EV for aerodynamcis. But, when parked, it would "unfurl" a large collection of solar panels which could be more-or-less aimed.
Various people have done this as a "one off" experiment. I guess it works, but is a bit bulky and a nuisance to set up and take down.
There was a guy who added a small wind geneerator to it as well. When parked, he set it up to generate power from the wind even if there was no sun. That works even at night. :-)
I think it might be easier to integrate the PV cells into the body of the vehicle itself. That's what the solar raycers do. They achieve a highly aerodynamic shape by bonding the individual PV cells directly to the body. This is very time-consuming on an one-off basis. But in a mass production situation, I imagine it wouldn't be much different than binding the cells to any other basically flat surface. You could have a solar hood, or trunk lid, or roof.
-- Obsolete (Ob-so-LETE). Adjective. 1. Something that is simple, reliable, straightforward, readily available, easy to use, and affordable. 2. Not what the salesman wants you to buy. -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
