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- smartmlp, on 07/07/2008, -29/+155I hope everyone realizes that this is purely for show. The space avaliable on an average car roof MIGHT produce 160 watts in ideal conditions, this is enough power to run your headlights and probably nothing more. Even a small electric car like the tesla roadster uses a massive 180,000 watt engine. Do the math, a solar panel is a drop in the bucket. Toyota is doing this just to make themselves look better in the eyes of the public, its purely cosmetic and the average person wont see that. It is also worthy pointing out that AC in hybrid cars (and now some regular cars) are now electric rather than pully driven. This alone nets a huge increase in efficiency, and the AC probably uses less power than your 7 speaker stereo system.
- rockus, on 07/07/2008, -9/+120Valid point. Then again its a start. If we start using a technology, the chances are improving it are manifold when compared to leaving it eternally in the drawing board.
- stealthc, on 07/07/2008, -5/+77And it's people like you who are needlessly depleting our precious, finite resources in the Sun. That thing's only good for another 5 billion years *****!
- GreyICE, on 07/07/2008, -5/+70Actually, the engines rarely run at 180,000 watts. That's absolute full acceleration power, and would drain any battery quite quickly.
The solar panels will be charging the storage even when the car is off (or should be), and will add nice supplemental power.
Yes, we're probably only talking 2-5% if you leave it in the sun all day (5 kWh/m^2/day, or so) but it's a nice bonus. - serif69, on 07/07/2008, -21/+82I thought the Prius was powered mostly by smugness.
- jsauter, on 07/07/2008, -5/+53Every little bit helps. That should be the mantra around moving to a 'green' society.
One of the biggest problems I see with the switch to low environmental impact technology is that many assume it has to be 100% right away. Taking small steps makes the transition easiery, cheaper and more likely to be successful. When you dismiss new technologies because they don't fulfill a need completely you will never open your door to change. - Berkana, on 07/07/2008, -3/+51The Prius can be hacked to be far more solar powered than just having the AC driven by solar power. The entire rooftop can be covered in PV material. See this white paper on the fuel efficiency gains on solar-hacked Prii (or Prioria or whatever the plural of 'Prius' is.)
http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/articles/pr ... - Realnemesis, on 07/07/2008, -6/+40Don't Park in the Shade.
- jazzviolin, on 07/07/2008, -7/+38Route solar panels energy to electric switch on rims.
"THEY SPiNNIN' ******, THEY SPINNIN'!"
- c.rock - sandeeptec, on 07/07/2008, -10/+41nice initiative
- BinaryFragger, on 07/07/2008, -4/+29Crammed? The Prius is as roomy as the average midsize car.
Let me guess, you're one of those people who 'needs' a Hummer to haul 3 bags of groceries? - vanguardanon, on 07/07/2008, -3/+26Everybody is thinking of this in terms of running power. I think of it in terms of storing power. I'm in North Carolina and it's hot as blazes out there. If every car was silently charging its batteries while they sat in the parking lot than perhaps we could drive the 12 miles back to our houses without burning a drop of gas?
Think of it as a plug-in hybrid that plugs into the sun. Why wouldn't this be a good thing? - Stormwern, on 07/07/2008, -8/+30It's not completely for show, means you can leave the AC on all day and have a cool car whenever you need it. Doesn't really matter if you're wasting solar energy.
- poet, on 07/07/2008, -16/+37I didn't know Indians were allowed to drive. I thought you used elephants or magic carpets.
- inactive, on 07/07/2008, -3/+23Excellent idea. Sun is something that we need to use more of.
- breakdancecrew, on 07/07/2008, -4/+23For the record: I have a 2005 Prius, and I think Al Gore's global warming is a bunch of crap that government uses to gain more control over the unsuspecting populace. (Son of a meteorologist) Still, here's something I calculated a little while back for those looking at fuel savings of the current models of the Prius:
In typical driving, the Prius gets about 50MPG, and the standard sedan gets about 25MPG.
This means a Prius uses about 2,000gal of gas for every 100,000mi driven, and a sedan uses about 4,000gal for every 100,000miles driven. Thus, over a sedan, the Prius saves about 2,000gal of gas per 100,000mi. Depending on where you live, the savings could be between $8,000 and $10,000 per 100,000miles at current gas prices. Most people nowadays keep their cars well over 100,000mi and sometimes as long as 200,000mi. If one keeps a Prius for the latter, that's where the gas savings really start to shine. The lower-end models of the Prius start at around $22,000, so if gas prices held steady (but realistically will keep going up), the net price of the car would be $2,000-$6,000. Add in the tax breaks that our good friends in the government give, and it looks even better. When you compare a Prius and a sedan that both have high-efficiency air filters and properly-inflated tires, that 25MPG difference in fuel efficiency broadens even more. I'm currently getting about 53MPG with a $50 permanent air filter that pays itself back quickly over replacing a $15 one every six months.
Aside from all the monetary savings, there's no denying that the US needs to stop tossing money at the terrorists' coffers for oil and that air pollution is a very real problem. So this all comes down to a win-win-win situation! - schneb, on 07/07/2008, -2/+20Here in SoCal, if it were enough just to run an exhaust fan for interior heat reduction while parked, that would help some. Although the price increase would make such a very poor investment.
- saleem, on 07/07/2008, -3/+21yes, it's a 'hybrid'.
- IAmTheGuy, on 07/07/2008, -6/+24All you naysayers do realize that the little bit of energy adds up, right?
- pak314, on 07/07/2008, -2/+19They are doing it already with some of the hybrids but the Indian government has a 104% tarrif on those things.
- cshields, on 07/07/2008, -1/+18Quite a few people have already done this to their prius. I got to see one in person a couple of month back done by Bob Bruninga, who put up a decent web page on how he did it: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/APRS-SPHEV.html
- pintomp3, on 07/07/2008, -1/+16but it's cooler in the shade.
- Hosalabad, on 07/07/2008, -6/+19Well, a 7 speaker factory system might use less than 160 watts itself. It's not like they are powerful.
It's a start, and I hope it will charge the batteries when the car is off too. - unitedatheism, on 07/07/2008, -5/+18Power generate fromk solar panels: 250watts/hour
Power not converted into heat due to solar panels: 250watts/hour
Perhaps you may even not use it to driver the air conditioner (we all know that 250 watts is not enough for any ac) and it will still be a good choice, like parking under the sun and having your car to heat half what one regular one should.
The sad part will likely be the price tag on it... - pakruse, on 07/07/2008, -1/+13@ricksite: For runtime use, yes. However, if your car sits under open sun all day, it could be a viable recharge method for a battery. If your car sits in the sun for 10 hours during the day, then using the numbers above (with what are currently consumer available) and assuming good sunlight, you're recharging about 7.5 kW-hours.
It isn't viable as the only power source for your car, but 7.5 kW-hours is enough for my drive home and then back to work the next day. - JigoroKano, on 07/07/2008, -1/+13The Solar panels provide orders of magnitude less power than the engine requires at an instant in time, but on average my car is parked in the sun orders of magnitude longer than it is driven.
- GreyICE, on 07/07/2008, -3/+14That is complete and utter nonsense, unscientific woo. Do you believe in homeopathy and crystal therapy too?
Don't spread this nonsense pap around and pretend its real science, much less somehow true. - ricksite, on 07/07/2008, -1/+12Apparently we will do anything in the US to stay away from diesel.
- marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -1/+115 minute commute? Dude... bicycle...
- KMyHero, on 07/07/2008, -8/+18Yeah, but it's still ugly.
- duke, on 07/07/2008, -0/+10Somehow I bet that rear window louvers and a reflective/better insulated roof would help just as much. Of course, there's no reason you couldn't have both.
- pakruse, on 07/07/2008, -3/+13@ricksite: Improving physics would be nice, but we're nowhere near having cheap, high efficiency solar cells. Imagine if we could even begin to approach 80% efficient solar cells or anything close - consumer solar cells are currently closer to 15%, and the best research cells, IIRC, are just over 40%.
In good sunlight, a decent rule of thumb is 100 W per square foot. If you assume 50 square feet of decent solar panels on top of the car (between the roof, the hood and the trunk), that's 5 kW of solar power. 15% efficiency yields 750 W, 40% yields 2 kW, and if we could get 80%, it'd be a 4 kW yield.
It isn't enough to power the car during operation, but if you park in a lot like I do all day, it's enough to recharge the car for commuting to and from work everyday (I'd think a plug-in car would be a better idea, but I imagine my employer might frown on me stealing electricity, and there isn't an outlet at my parking spot at my apartment). - GreyICE, on 07/07/2008, -1/+10The article was named: Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk
Wow, you're an idiot. This was probably the closest link you could find to a mainstream source, the rest were from Prison Planet or CrystalHealing.net (right next to the articles on vaccines causing autism and Big Business suppressing the water cars). - marx2k, on 07/07/2008, -3/+12Except then you have accelerated freon leakage
- ricksite, on 07/07/2008, -4/+13The technology can only take things to a point. After that, you have to improve physics.
- xero69, on 07/07/2008, -1/+10I hope India realizes the value of mass transit, trains, and bicycles and designs their cities and communities around these things INSTEAD of cars. No reason for India to fall into the same oil trap as other developed nations such as my own (USA).
- web2pointYo, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9I think that fact that diesel shot up around 64% over the last year pretty much killed any hope of mass adoption in the US.
- greener, on 07/07/2008, -3/+12Now if I can just find a huge magnifying glass to park under.
- Barackalypse, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8That will void your solar panel warranty, many of them explicitly forbid the use of concentrators as it becomes very easy to increase operating temperatures or voltages beyond specifications.
- LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -1/+9Ahem. It's about CHARGING the battery when it is just sitting there, not providing significant running power.
Leaving it charging all day would save you MONEY by not paying for the battery charging through your local utility...and it would be free...forever. - stealthc, on 07/07/2008, -4/+12So are you one of those people who bitch about your favorite indie band "selling out" when they achieve even the slightest bit of success?
The limitations of a solar energy system is not Toyota's fault. Yes it makes them look good. But all this "green" BS is mostly marketing in the first place, so what's the big deal? - Futurejunior, on 07/07/2008, -4/+11I also heard believing unfounded rumors gives you cancer...that's just what I heard
- ColorBlind, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8Exactly what i was thinking. I leave my truck sitting outside all day long while i'm at work. Maybe the car could charge itself rather then leaving it plugged in forever and raising my electric bill every month.
- BuddingMonkey, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8[citation needed]
- Barackalypse, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8That Tesla motor wattage you quote is misleading, it actually only uses about 213 watts per mile (4.7 miles per kilowatt hour)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster - diggB, on 07/07/2008, -2/+9I would argue that even if the panels only generated 160 Watts, that's 160 Watts times the number of hundreds of thousands of cars that will be sold in total power savings. Like it's been said before, every bit helps.
- zacharytelschow, on 07/07/2008, -3/+10So... They're adding enough solar panels to power a light bulb in order to jack the price up. Almost no value for the added price. Probably a great idea.
- SilverBlade2k, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8I wish Toyota would work on a plug-in version first, then add solar panels.
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