Effective Solar Powered Cars…Really?


Before we can talk about whether they’re effective or not, maybe you’d like to know exactly what a solar powered car is. Simply put, it’s an electric car. Except…it doesn’t plug in to a wall socket or anywhere else because the electricity that runs is comes from solar energy panels attached directly to the top of the vehicle.

The electricity for a solar powered car is generated directly from the photovoltaic (PV) solar energy panels that capture the sun’s energy.

Solar powered cars currently take a lot of direct sunlight to operate right, and they can’t go for long distances. The vehicle-topping PV panels capture the sun’s rays, and transfer any energy not needed for immediate operation into car batteries. There, the electrical power is stored and used later. Unfortunately, the batteries that are used today won’t store a lot of additional electricity, so they aren’t powerful enough to run the vehicle for more than a few extra miles.

If you really want the current answer to the effectiveness of solar powered cars now, what you’re going to hear is “We’re not quite there yet.”

Solar powered cars, with a few more technological advances, however, definitely show the promise of producing one of the best solutions to reduction of fossil fuel dependence, and the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Falling just behind coal-burning power plants, vehicles are the second largest source of greenhouse gas. Who do you think might be the biggest contributor to both these sources? If you said the United States, you’re correct. The United States annually contributes 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide through automobile engines, and 2.5 billion tons through coal burning plants.

With these statistics, it’s easy to see why the United States, with only 4% of the world’s population, isn’t seen by others as a strong environmental defender. Progress has been extremely slow, despite the desire and the undisputed technology to make a significant difference.

Automobile and energy industries have lobbied long and hard to resist further legislation or incentives that would really produce tangible results. As a result, gas-hogging SUV’s and other large vehicles still maintain a strong hold on the American market.

You’ll find that solar powered cars in the United States are nearly exclusively built as race cars…very lightweight with small cockpits for the drivers. Costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, the solar panels for their operation are exorbitantly expensive. But, technologically, they are extremely advanced, and clearly point to future benefit. There’s almost no pollution here…including noise pollution, as the panels silently work to collect and store energy. One added benefit…they run fast.

Outside the United States, there have been a few solar powered cars (although not totally vehicle-generated electricity) that have been built for sale to the general public. They’re identified as SPEV’s, or solar powered electric vehicles. Most of them are still tiny, and built for very short trips — to the office and back, or the grocery store and back. However, one that’s showing promise is the solar powered five-door Blue Car hatchback, a fully electric vehicle with solar panels that’s being built in Europe. According to the ad in inhabitat.com, “The solar panels on the vehicle’s roof provides some power to the vehicle’s systems. It comes with regenerative brakes and a Lithium Metal Polymer batteries, and has a range of 155 miles per charge. According to the manufacturer, all the materials in the construction have been sourced to be as environmentally friendly as possible.”

Similarly, the Toyota Prius, an electric hybrid car, has added an optional solar roof that can add power for a vehicle for approximately 20 miles. While this may seem a very small contribution, every additional solar “mile” operated makes a larger contribution to our carbon footprint.

Since solar powered cars work without burning fossil fuels, they create a very viable solution to the energy crisis. Not to mention…no oil changes, no tune-ups. And…you don’t have to take them in for an emissions check…ever.

As a country, when we decide to invest through our purchases and our voice…and to insist that our representatives in the House and Senate invest with us…in solar power, we diminish our carbon footprint.

Solar powered cars can…and will become…more effective and more economical as we support the technology, and insist on research and development to further their manufacture and distribution.

Looking to find out all you can about solar power cars then visit www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com to find the best advice on home solar power for you.

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Calendars – Why They Can Be Slightly Out


Thousands of years ago, ancient Greek astronomers calculated that the track of the Earth’s axis is constantly, even if in a very slow way, shifting in a uniform pattern. The variation is very similar to the manner a spinning top slowly leans one way and then another as it slows down. It is a wobble that happens as its axis alters direction.

This odd movement of the planet is due to a couple of factors, the most important of which is something called ‘precession’. Precession arises from the fact that the Earth is not a perfect sphere. It is in fact about twenty-seven miles longer around the Equator that it is around the Poles. The Earth then is oblate, or fat around the middle like middle-aged spread, but it is due to the rotation not to its age.

If you imagine the Earth with its Poles off centre. Then rotate that image and you will find that any point, except the exact centre of the axis, will move in a circle. But very, very gradually. So slowly that it takes 26,000 years to go full circle and get back to where it started from.

This point then, any point you choose, is very gradually shifting its position in relation to the stars because the axis is rotating too. The result of this is that, what we call the North Star (formally known as Polaris, which is in fact one degree off true North) will not be over our North Pole one day. In fact, by about 15,000 AD, Vega will be almost over the North Pole, although it will be about four degrees off true North. But even this will not endure, and by 28,000 AD, Polaris will be back above where it is nowadays.

One of the effects of the precession is that seasons change. They change the dates that they occur, so that Summer could come earlier or later. The remarkable thing about our calendar is that it is corrected for that (with the leap year). If it were not, the vernal or Spring equinox would move over 13,000 years from March 21st to September 21st., which is the date of the autumnal equinox, precisely half a year later.

It is for this reason that the precession of the Earth is generally referred to as the “Precession of the Equinoxes”. Although the precession of the equinoxes is very slow, it can be readily observed. The correct year of 325.25 days is the length of time from one vernal equinox to the next vernal equinox, however, it takes 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer for the Sun to appear in precisely the same place with relation to the stars behind it over the same period. This is why accurate star maps have to be stamped with the exact time and date to which they refer.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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