October 4, 2008

thought I had missed Marcelo and his crew, but I got a call late yesterday morning and I met them down at the park. The solar car was definitely making heads turn, which is exactly what Marcelo's goal is... to bring awareness about green alternatives and promote the use of clean and sustainable energy. On a sunny day, his car can go 500 kilometers and uses less energy than it takes to run a toaster. 

The Canadian Government is not behind this car at all and although the Power of One Solar car is licensed all over the world to legally drive, it is only not allowed to run on the roads in Ontario, Canada. Ironically, it was built in that province!!! I think it is very short sighted of Ontario for them to ban it. I should write them a letter!

However, the rest of the world is receiving the car with open arms. Marcelo is very close to winning the Guinness Book of World records with it for 10,000 miles traveled. The car is also the first solar car to be above the Artic Circle and the first to run in sub-zero temperatures. 

Marcelo basically lays in the car to drive it and he says it is so comfortable that there is the danger of falling asleep in it. He wears a headset with a camera as a rear view mirror. The car has turn signals and the whole works. Not sure about a horn.

Steering is interesting. It looks to be a set of motorcycle handles. I did not ask, but I was guessing that brakes and the "accelerator" would have been on the handles as well. And it runs so very quiet... like not even a whisper.

I found out a little more about the guys who drive the support vehicle as well. Earl, I did not get a photo of, but he is from Fort Nelson, B.C. and just came down on the Greyhound bus to take over some driving. Ryu Tavo, who is pictured, is actually from Tokyo, Japan and was a hitchhiker, whom started
 out in Mexico and somehow met up with Marcelo and stayed on as a driver. What an experience!!

There was a school gathering and that was adzactly what Marcelo was looking for to show his vehicle off, to perhaps inspire youth to continue to look for alternatives. There is even a place on the Power of One website that tells kids (or adults) how to build their own small scale solar powered car.

Marcelo and crew were very interesting to talk to and I hope to be able to keep in contact with them. These are the kinds of people that I like to collect as friends. Earl took a photo of Marcelo, the car and myself, before they continued to head south and finish up the last of the miles they require to make the record for most miles put on by a solar car. Good luck guys! And have an excellent journey in following your dream Marcelo.

How the Solar Car Works
A solar car is an electric vehicle that uses sunlight as fuel.

The upper portion of the solar car is covered in photovolvaics cells (solar cells). The solar cells convert sunlight into electricity, the electricity is then stored in batteries that power an electric motor and drives the car. The whole process is controlled by electric and electronic components.

The main components of a solar car are:

-The motor: Used to drive the car.

-The motor controller: It controls how much electricity goes into the motor, it manages the energy flow.

-The solar array: The array is the area where the solar cells are located, the top part of the car, it produces the electricity that drives the car.

-The mppt (maximum point power tracker). Maximizes the power produced by the array. The solar array is divided into sections, each section is connected to a mppt. The greater the curve of the solar array the more mppt's it may use, as different parts of the array will have different amounts of sunlight exposure.
Without the mppts the entire array would be limited to having the section least exposed to sunlight and consequently decrease it's efficiency.

Batteries - Stores electricity. Without the battery the performance of the car is seriously compromised. The battery supplements electricity used by the car. For example a solar car using efficient solar cells may go as fast as 70kmp/h (m/h) under direct sunlight alone and can reach speeds of up to 120 km/h (m/h) with help of the battery, however under a cloud, rain, tunnel or going up hill without the battery it's speed may only reach 10 or 20 km/h.

The Design/Body: The solar car operates more efficiently than a gas powered vehicle because it doesn't have to accommodate a grid (radiators) to cool off the motor. In spite of the solar car sometimes being wider and longer than a normal car it has far less air resistance (drag) due to its low profile.
Some cars have rear mounted cameras instead of a rear mirror to minimize air drag.

Over the years a number of shapes have been used. So far, unlike Formula 1 for example, no single shape has been defined among the solar cars used for competition, making events even more interesting to watch.

The Chassis: The chassis holds the whole vehicle together by being used as a base for everything to be mounted on, However, some vehicles have a monococ shape (egg shape) where the body and the chassy are one, while other vehicles may have a combination of both.

Materials: As technology advances so does the variety of materials used in the fabrication of the solar cars. Some of the most common materials used are" fiber glass, carbon fiber and kevlar. There are even some teams that have used bamboo, balsa wood and rice paper as building materials for their cars!

The tires (or Tyres): Even though solar car tires are not commercially available, some manufactures make them. The solar car tires have a (*)rolling resistance of about 2.5 kg/p/ton compared to 11 or 13 for regular car tires.

(*) Rolling resistance is the force implied to overcome the resistance of the tire.

So, to move a vehicle that weights 1000kg, on a smooth flat surface, a force of 2.5 kg of push is needed overcome the resistance of a solar car tire compared to 11kg to 13kg of a regular tire.

"Important to note the solar car tire is a high performance tire design for solar car races unlike the regular car tire designed for the everyday use".

Breaks: The solar car has two kinds of breaks. One is electrical, where the electric motor is designed to assist in slowing the car by switching over to a generator, at the same time recovering some of the energy (about 40%). The other is a mechanical break, This break is similar to a normal car except it is a lot smaller since the solar car doesn't require the same force to stop. Solar cars sometimes will use motorcycle or even mountain bike disk breaks.

Facts: There are a number of things that can affect the performance of a solar car, like the efficiency of the solar cells. The more efficient the cell the more electricity it produces. Efficiency can vary from 8% to as much as 29%.
To understand it better, at ground level "1 Sun" (At noon) the sun radiate about 1,000 watts per square meter. Using a solar cell with an efficiency of 20.5% the amount of energy harvested will be 205 watts. The average solar car uses 8 square meters of solar cells.