World Solar Challenge

[BigV]

Thank you, sir.

I will use these figures for a starting point. My initial reaction was to ZenGum's assertion that there isn't enough energy falling on a car to make it feasible. I wonder. just thinking out loud here...

Solar to electricity is one way to transmute that energy into something useable to move the vehicle. What about solar to steam? I remember posting a video about a fellow that made a parabolic mirror of about 2 m sq (well under the area a car covers) that took those 2000 watts and focused it on a single point. At that point the temperature was eleventy-kabillion degrees or close to it. Actually I think it was about 3700 deg C, PLENTY hot enough to melt steel, rocks, etc. What about using that to fire a boiler and then you can do what you like from there, run a turbine, drive the wheels, whatever.

I know Zen said normal requirements. This doesn't meet normal requirements. But there is a LOT of energy to be had. Ultimately, ALL energy sources available to us are manifestations of solar energy.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by BigV

Thank you, sir.

Thanks from me, too

I will use these figures for a starting point. My initial reaction was to ZenGum's assertion that there isn't enough energy falling on a car to make it feasible. I wonder. just thinking out loud here...

Based on a conversation with my mate's brother who (a) had a business converting Daewoos to battery/electric and (b) has a business installing solar panels on houses.

A car has, what, 10, 20 square metres of surface. At most half of that is in the sun, say, 10 Sq. M. At 1,000 watts per square metre, that's 10 kilowatts. At 20% collection efficiency, that gives 2 kilowatts to power the car. Modern cars have 50 to 100 times that much power.

Solar to electricity is one way to transmute that energy into something useable to move the vehicle. What about solar to steam? I remember posting a video about a fellow that made a parabolic mirror of about 2 m sq (well under the area a car covers) that took those 2000 watts and focused it on a single point. At that point the temperature was eleventy-kabillion degrees or close to it. Actually I think it was about 3700 deg C, PLENTY hot enough to melt steel, rocks, etc. What about using that to fire a boiler and then you can do what you like from there, run a turbine, drive the wheels, whatever.

The physics works, but we're talking a huge contraption here. You couldn't take that on the road. This is, however, a viable design for powering cities.
A combination of photovoltaic and solar thermal (stays hot enough to work overnight) should work.

I know Zen said normal requirements. This doesn't meet normal requirements. But there is a LOT of energy to be had.

Absolutely! Any human talking about an energy shortage just isn't paying attention. The amount of solar energy falling on earth is several orders of magnitude greater than our current requirements.

Ultimately, ALL energy sources available to us are manifestations of solar energy.

True for solar, wind, wave, biomass, hydroelectric, fossil fuels and maybe even tidal power. Geothermal and nuclear are due to elements created when a supernova blew about 6 or 7 billion years ago; whether this counts as "solar" is debatable, but not very important.

I've had a plan for a "farmer's fuel barn". Farmer builds a big shed with solar panels on the roof. These charge a storage battery. Farmer drives his ute/truck on mobile batteries, and each evening plugs it in to charge via the storage battery. It'd probably work better using hydrogen instead of batteries to store the energy.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I've had a plan for a "farmer's fuel barn". Farmer builds a big shed with solar panels on the roof. These charge a storage battery. Farmer drives his ute/truck on mobile batteries, and each evening plugs it in to charge via the storage battery. It'd probably work better using hydrogen instead of batteries to store the energy.

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