Solar-Power-Augmented Prius Takes the Grid Out of “Plug-in”

[suziedemocrat]

From: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/solarpoweraugme.html

A Canadian engineer has prototyped a Photovoltaic Prius—a 2001 Prius augmented with roof-top solar panels and an additional battery system to supplement the charge in the original equipment NiMH batteries.

Steve Lapp’s PV Prius is still a rough prototype—a demonstration of concept—but even with the limitations of the systems, he has achieved an initial 10% fuel efficiency improvement from 4.5 l/100km (52 mpg US) to 4.0 l/100km (59 mpg US).
....

How much gasoline can this photovoltaic hybrid car save? Well let’s look at the energy available from the sun on the roof of the car. For June and July in Kingston Ontario, about 6 kWh of energy from the sun strikes each square meter of horizontal surface. If we install 2 square meters of photovoltaic panels on the car and we collect 10% of the energy from the sun as electricity (well within present PV efficiency), we can theoretically go about 8 km each day on just the sun’s energy. If we drive 24 km on a sunny day, that is enough to reduce our gasoline consumption by 33%. This would take the Prius from 5.0 l/100km to 3.3 l/100km.

More at above link.

[despairing optimist]

1. Of course if one walked those eight km, one would save even more

Eight kilometers is less than five miles. In good weather it's good exercise. Since people walk at about 3 kph, it's a couple of hours' worth of walking. Where is everyone rushing to?

Bicycles are another option for the whole 24 km on a sunny day.

[FtWayneBlue]

2. my thoughts are, why not have a folding

solar panel array that would cover the whole car under a pyramid or some such shape and catch sun all day while you were parked at work. 8 or 9 hours of recharging that way might be enough to get you all the way home and back for the next day's charge.