Solar+Cars

The solar powered car wiki. by:Pat DeLaney Solar Transportation technology has been around since the early nineties. It was invented in an attempt to create fuel effeicient and healthy safe cars. The first solar cars were built in our countries finest institutions for learning. For example the university of michigan started building their solar car the "Continuum" in 1990. The car wich would cost over 1 million dollars to replicate runs solely on the sun. considering that it needs no refueling this car isn't an ideal vehivcle. The students at the university lucky enough to work on this project described the car as "cramped" without the perks of a modern four door. It doesn't have radio, windows, quick acceleration or a heater. as you can see this car would be a sacrifice for drivers comfort if we were willing to make this sacrifice for fuel conservation. Solar Cars are run on photovoltaic cells or PVC's. These PVC's send light energy to a battery that is connected to a motor wich is used to run the car. in essence the PVC's on your car transfer energy to the battery wich converts that energy into usable electronic enrgy for an electric motor in the car. essentialy the car is run on the power of the sun. How does the energy from the sun get there you ask. The top of the car is covered in solar panels. THe solar panels are used to take in photons from the sun using very small semi conductors. they then convert the photons into the photovoltaic cell. this cell is then processed into electricity using a battery system. see its that simple. Even when you put on the breaks a solar car is doing is job to take in as much energy as possible unlike a regular car that outputs noise and heat when it uses its breaks. But what happens when there is no sunlight? Simple, all the energy taken in in a given day is stored in batteries and used sparingly until there is no energy coming into the solar panels. Therefore you can drive your solar car at night. Other innovations in transportation technology have sprouted in the past few years. inventions like hydrogen fuel cells have changed our thought process on what is healthy. Unlike the brief conversion to electrically run cars solar energy is a bright new future for transportation. **see also**: [] and [] For new about solar car projects and some of the most successful solar car teams. [] facts! [] to build your own solar car! [] more facts!
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