The idea of one machine powered by solar energy It’s not new and, in fact, it’s a project that scientists have been working on for decades.
Almost 70 years ago, such an idea was presented in Chicago and, although it has not received practical feedback (yet), it remains an interesting project that perhaps in the future will allow man to take another step forward in the idea of completely sustainable mobility.
Of course there is still a lot to do, despite the electric cars are becoming increasingly widespread, this may not be enough to revolutionize the sector.
For this reason the idea of a vehicle that fully exploits the free and abundant energy of the Sun it has always been a dream for designers who, as just seen, have always been chasing this goal.
Solar energy cars, where are we at?
As just mentioned, in recent years, numerous startups operating in the electric vehicle sector and more and more large companies are trying to “convert” their models to electric.
At the moment, this type of nutrition represents a good one alternative solution to fossil fuels ma la availability and prices of vehicles they do not yet allow mass diffusion.
Over time, many companies have developed increasingly innovative strategies to include solar panels in cars to produce energy, trying to find another alternative to petrol, diesel and gas.
In fact this is the next step for the mobility of the future but, despite significant funding from those who believe in the potential of this technology, the solar car is not ready yet and, indeed, very few prototypes exist in the world.
The reason for these “slowdowns” is essentially practical and, in addition to costs which could be quite prohibitive (above 150 thousand dollars for each example), also comes into play the problem of energy storage (which could be solved with the modern battery) and how to make these work vehicles at night o on days without suna discussion that naturally links back to that of batteries.
Then naturally, the problem would be even greater in all those latitudes where the sun is truly a rare event and which, therefore, would be precluded from using such vehicles.
Despite the “good intentions”, therefore, the world is still far from a future in which it will be possible to travel using only the sun’s energy and this is precisely because very expensive batteries still play a huge role in zero-emission travel.
The sun at the service of mobility
Although the idea of a completely solar vehicle is still rather remote, it is good to remember that i solar panels are having an ever-increasing diffusion, both for homes than on vehicles like i camper.
Of course at the moment they don’t yet concern the movement of these vehicles but they manage to provide the necessary power for the entire equipment on board and this is already a good step forward for a real revolution in the sector.
The batteries mentioned above come into play here too, but being able to imagine a completely self-sufficient camper it’s already something, especially so as not to further burden the planet even during “trips out of town”.
So, at the moment, the idea of a 100% solar car able to offer performance of a traditional vehicle it is obviously not yet a contemplated eventuality.
However, it is undeniable that technology has made giant strides in this regard in recent decades and, with good chances, in a reasonably short time it will be possible use the sun to move our vehicles and not just for home charging.
Solar cars, one of the most interesting projects
One of the most interesting solar car prototypes is l’car EARTHa true super car that, in addition to being powered by solar energyhe even eats the carbon in the air.
The vehicle was developed by a team of students from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, and is equipped with lithium ion batteries that are recharged up to 15% via solar panels installed on the vehicle.
As just said the car also has a device that carbon capture and the bodywork itself is not made with the typical materials of the sector but uses recycled plastic modeled by a 3D printer.
The team’s goal was zero-emission mobility but, while they were working on this idea, the kids realized what to achieve carbon neutrality it was impossible without a new perspective to address these problems.
So they decided to find a way to make the ZEM car also remove carbon from the air.
To do this they are used two filters located on the underside of the carwhich “eat” carbon while the car is moving.
Filters must be drained every 200 milesbut the Zem automotive team has already developed a solution to eliminate this, via a charging station for electric vehicles which extracts carbon dioxide so that it can be reused for other clean fuels or stored safely to keep it out of the atmosphere.
At the moment the vehicle captures 4.41 pounds of carbon dioxide every 20,000 miles – that’s just 0.04% of the average carbon a car produces in a year.
But the team continues to work to improve ZEM to, in the future, exploit the full potential of this insight.