When solar energy and the automotive industry are mentioned together it’s assumed the topic is solar powered cars. Understandable, but only partially true. The auto industry, that bastion of fossil fuel burning tradition has been researching clean, renewable solar powered vehicles for years. What few people are aware of is that car makers General Motors, Volkswagen, and Ford are also leading users of solar energy to meet their industrial usage needs.
How Solar Powered Vehicles Work
A solar powered car is a vehicle that operates using electrical energy generated through the collection of the sun’s rays. This is accomplished by employing a solar array that uses photovoltaic cells (PV cells) that convert sunlight into electricity. Sunlight comprised of protons strikes PV cells. Electrons are excited and flow, creating an electrical current. These PV cells are made of a semiconductor material, usually an alloy of crystalline silicon, indium, gallium and nitrogen.
Solar powered vehicles have to be lightweight because the energy able to be collected by the car’s solar array is limited. Thus aerospace, alternative energy and automotive technologies are combined to produce the lightest vehicle possible.
History Making Solar Powered Cars
Solar powered cars are not a new idea. The concept of using the sun to power a vehicle has been around for decades, since August 31, 1955 to be exact. It was then that General Motors’s William G. Cobb created a 15″ solar powered prototype called the Sunmobile. Showcased at the Chicago Powerama convention, the solar car had 12 selenium PV cells that powered a small Pooley electric motor turning a rear wheel shaft.
Originally solar cars were automobile industry or technology institution research projects and were one off prototypes. Later solar powered vehicles were still built for scientific research but were used to compete in solar car races or endurance rallies. Starting in 2011 however, solar powered cars intended to be used for daily driving on public roads were built.
The first solar car that a person could drive was demonstrated by the International Rectifier Company in 1962. The platform used was a 1912 Baker electric car that the company converted in 1958 to run on PV cells and showed for the first time 4 years later. Approximately 10,640 individual solar cells were mounted on the car’s roof.
An Alabama University professor named Ed Passereni built the Bluebird solar car in 1977. A full scale prototype, the Bluebird was exhibited at the Knoxville, Tennessee World’s Fair in 1982.
In 1979 a three wheel solar car with a solar array on the roof was created by Alain Freeman. An Englishman, Freeman managed to get his invention road registered in 1980. It’s likely this was the first solar powered car able to be legally driven on public roads in the UK.
The Citicar was the creation of the engineering department at Tel Aviv University in Israel. In 1980 Arye Braunstein and his colleagues created a solar car that had solar panels on its hood and roof. Comprised of 432 cells that generated 400 watts of power, the Citicar used 8 batteries of 6 volts each to store the photovoltaic (PV) energy. Weighing 1,320 lb., the Citicar was able to reach 40 mph and had a range of 50 miles.
In 1981 that Larry Perkins and Hans Tholstrup, creator of the World Solar Challenge, built a solar race car. In 1982 Perkins and Tholstrup were the first people ever to drive a solar powered car across Australia, starting in Perth and finishing in Sydney.
In 1984 another solar race car set a world record. Invented by Greg Johanson and Joel Davidson, the Sunrunner set the official Guinness world record. Driven in the Mojave Desert of California, a top speed of 41 mph was officially recorded for a “Solely Solar Powered Vehicle”, meaning it did not use a battery. The official record appears in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records.
In 1987 the Sunraycer drove at an average speed of 42 mph for 1,866 miles along Australia’s Stuart Highway, going south from Darwin to Adelaide. The Sunraycer was a collaboration between General Motors, AeroVironment, and Hughes Aircraft.
Current Solar Cars
Sunswift eVe is a solar powered race car that is expected to be navigating the streets of Sydney by July this year. A team of students from Australia’s University of New South Wales is working to make the Sunswift eVe the first street legal solar powered car in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Stella is a family sized, road legal solar powered car. It took first place in the World Solar Challenge, and won the 3,000 km Darwin to Adelaide, Michelin Cruiser Class competition in Australia last fall.
There are many more one off solar powered concept cars and prototype solar energy research vehicles, but those above are the most notable.
Solar Energy Powering The Auto Industry
Volkswagen, GM and Ford will probably all be manufacturing solar powered cars and assorted electric vehicles one day. Today though, all three companies have invested heavily in solar power to meet the energy needs of some of their plant or corporate operations.
Volkswagen is generating its own energy at its Chattanooga, TN, USA plant courtesy of a 65 acre solar park. Thirty-three acres of the solar park are the solar panels themselves, making it the largest single solar array in the state of Tennessee.
There’s also a massive solar array on the roof of SEAT’s factory in Martorell, Spain. Just completed, it is the largest solar power plant in the automobile industry. The joint venture with utility solar developer Gestamp Solar began in 2010 and cost an estimated US$47.55 million.
Ford Motor Company and DTE Energy are cooperating on building Michigan’s largest solar array. The project is to be funded by DTE Energy and will comprise 360 covered parking spaces and 30 charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles at the Ford World Headquarters. The project is to provide employees driving the company’s Ford Fusion Energi and C-MAX Hybrid Energi cars with recharge stations.
General Motors is committed to producing clean energy using solar power. GM is already the No. 1 automotive user of solar power in the United States according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and ranks No. 13 of the top 20 solar powered companies in the United States.
Conclusion
There is likely to come a day when the sun meets most of the world’s energy requirements. It is likely too that the automotive industry will be leading the way in both industrial uses of solar energy and solar powered vehicles.
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