DailyDirt: Solar Powered Transportation

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Oct 3rd 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The sun blankets our planet in about 100 terawatts of energy every year -- far more than the 15 terawatts that people use annually (largely from fossil fuels). Solar power isn't quite ready to solve all of our energy problems, but solar technology is getting better and better. Here are just a few first steps that could boost solar power use for transportation.

The Solar Impulse plane completed a journey across the US, making it the first solar-powered plane capable of day and night operation to fly from San Francisco to New York. The plane's top speed is about 45 mph, and an improved version will attempt to make it around the world in 2015. [url]
The Solar Car Project Hochschule Bochum holds the Guiness World Record for the longest journey by a solar electric vehicle, driving 29,753 km (18,487 miles) from Adelaide, Australia to Mount Barker, Australia. It took 168 days to make that trip, and it probably wasn't exactly Fahrvergnügen. [url]
The MS Turanor PlanetSolar is the first solar-powered vehicle to circumnavigate the globe in 2012. This solar powered boat took 584 days to travel about 37,286 miles, and it's biggest problem wasn't the technology but avoiding pirates on the open sea. [url]

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Filed Under: electric vehicle, energy, guiness record, solar impulse, solar power, transportation

13 Comments

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phils, 3 Oct 2013 @ 6:01pm

units
"100 terawatts of energy"

terawatts is a unit of POWER, not of ENERGY.

The total solar energy provided to the earth in a year needs to be expressed in units like terawatt-hours or terawatt-seconds or maybe yottawatts.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2013 @ 6:42pm

Re: units (and HELD FOR CENSORSHIP)
actually energy and power are the same thing, 1 watt is 1 joule, and is a measure of energy and power.

1 watt is 1 amp at 1 volt for 1 second

so a 1 watt light globe (that is turned on) might be using 1 volt and drawing 1 amp, and is producing the POWER of 1 watt of light energy.

he is more correct using the term energy than power, as power is energy at work, and all the sun light falling on the earth is not 'put to work'.

So you have a lot of power falling on the earth, that has more energy than our present energy demands.

Converting energy to power is what this article is about.

Look TD got something right !!!! :)

(But I will still be HELD FOR CENSORSHIP, for 4 or 5 days) !!!!
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bogusstrawman, 3 Oct 2013 @ 6:47pm

Adelaide to Mt Barker?
That is about 30K. I think you mean left Adelaide, went around the world, and arrived back at Mt Barker.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2013 @ 8:42pm

I wish solar panel prices would come down. Mankind can manufacture miniature computers "smartphones" for around $100, yet it's seems beyond our ability to build an affordable solar panel.

I admit, I have no idea how much a solar panel costs. They must still be pretty expensive though, because hardly anybody on this planet uses them.

Yes, I know they require batteries too. I would think the batteries should cost more than the solar panels, themselves. Guess we need to work on battery prices too.
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OneSeraph (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 12:39am

The amount of solar energy that reaches the earths surface per year is estamated to be greater that 121 PWh that's Petawatts.
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frank87 (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 2:13am

Do you know this one?
http://www.tue.nl/en/university/news-and-press/news/student-team-unveils-worlds-first-solar-powered- family-car/
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Ninja (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 4:36am

45mph for a plane is... Laughable. I do hope it evolves though. Maybe nuclear batteries powered planes? :�
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RyanNerd (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:47am

Great Scott!
1.21 Gigawatts!
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michael, 4 Oct 2013 @ 10:23am

Re:
"45mph for a plane is... Laughable."

This may shock you, but the first automobile wasn't a Lexus. And the first computer couldn't run Crysis, either.

Have you ever actually designed and built anything? Was it spectacular perfection, or was it a proof of concept onwhich to build a better model?
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phils, 4 Oct 2013 @ 1:20pm

Re: units
Oops -- last word in that post should be yottajoules, not yottawatts.

[I wrote it correctly the first time I tried posting it but for some reason it didn't post. I screwed up when I tried to hurry up and re-post.]
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phils, 4 Oct 2013 @ 1:24pm

Re: Re: units (and HELD FOR CENSORSHIP)
1 watt is NOT 1 joule

1 watt is 1 joule per second

1 watt-second is 1 joule
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 4:47pm

Re: Re: Re: units (and HELD FOR CENSORSHIP)
yes, your right, the point is a joule is energy and a watt is power.

A battery can have say 10 joules of energy, but it does not become power until it's used.

A donut might have 30 joules of energy, but unless you eat it for burn it, you don't get that power from it.

I meant to type a joule is 1 watt for 1 second or 1 amp at 1 volt for 1 second.

1 joule of energy can be converted to 1 watt for 1 second.
Again, the point is still the same, and the correct term used by the author of this article.

Solar panels are still expensive to make as opposed to CPU's and computers because much higher amounts of raw materials are required, of high quality and there is not the economies of scale either.

A lot of cars are made too, they are not significantly cheaper then years ago, they have economy of scale, but a car like a solar panel requires a lot of materials, especially high grade (IC grade) silicon ingots.

far, far more geothermal energy available on earth that is available from sun light.

We live on a thin layer of rock floating on a massive sea of nuclear powered molten rock. (magma in the earth, lava when on the surface).
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Burning man, 6 Oct 2013 @ 3:03pm

Re: Adelaide to Mt Barker?
I would assume that is Mt. Barker in Western Australia a few thousand km's away on the other side of the Nullabor plain. An event a few years ago when a man had a heart attack on the Mt. Barker golf course caused the ambulance to be dispatched to the wrong golf course in the wrong town in the wrong state all because his quick thinking friend used his mobile phone for assistance. The operator assumed he was phoning from somewhere else and the friend didn't think the operator was interstate or that there was another golf course in a town with the same name, so didn't clarify which state he was in. I can't recall if the heart attack patient survived or not.
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