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Written by brianG
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Thursday, 20 November 2008 13:35 |
 1971 Travelall So the thought came into my head: what car is cheap, has burly suspension, lots of cargo capacity and is large? With gas prices at $4+ per gallon the abundance of Suburbans caused their prices to drop and BAM! Excellent candidate for a permanent ICE-ectomy (ICE = internal combustion engine).
The solar panel that I was looking at was a sharp 224 watt panel. With some overhang I think that I could fit 5 panels on the top of the truck, which would give about 1120Watts of continuous power in bright light. Although this wouldn’t be enough to power the vehicle it would be enough to provide about 25 miles worth of energy in about 8 hours of sunlight. Which means that some commuters wouldn’t even need to plug in the vehicle ever, like me (my commute is 12.5 miles). The Travelall would have a total pack life of 50+ miles meaning that even if you commute exceeded 25 miles total then you could wait until the weekend to “top off” the pack and still not have to plug it in; though I do a fair amount of driving on the weekends too. Now take a diesel generator and add it to the mix, you could put it in a trailer or in the roof if you wanted, and that could extend the range pretty far depending on the size of generator! For this system I would estimate that we would charge $15,000 if the vehicle was provided. Might seem like a lot but consider never having to fill up your commuter again with any kind of fuel and it gets a little more attractive. I think for me the main attractive aspect of the “Solar Harvester” is that it takes a comfortable safe vehicle that was once forbidden in the carbon friendly world and makes it a champion. Plus when battery and solar technology improves all you do is bolt it up and increase your range and decrease your charge times.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 11:28 |
