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Why don't we use solar to power our electric cars?

For years, we've been watching as solar-powered race cars travel at relatively high rates of speed for hours on end – as long as the sun happens to be shining, of course. In fact, the World Solar Challenge has been taking place in Australia every few years since 1987, and the actual vehicles competing in the event got so fast that race organizers eventually had to alter the rules in the name of safety back in 2005. Since these solar-powered racers had gotten so fast and capable that in 2007 the World Solar Challenge altered its ... Read more →

Kyocera offers details on solar cells used by 2010 Prius Jeremy Korzeniewski

Want to know more about the solar moonroof option that's available on the latest third-generation Toyota Prius for 2010? Read on. According to Tech-On from Nikkei newspaper in Japan, the actual ...

Elon Musk on PHEV's, battery technology and solar cells Jeremy Korzeniewski

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria recently got some face-to-face time with Elon Musk, who, as you surely know by now, is one of the "product architects" at Tesla Motors. There were plenty of interesting ...

Mitsubishi boosts output of solar cells Jeremy Korzeniewski

We've written before about Honda's production of solar cells, but did you know that Mitsubishi actually ranks as the world's sixth-largest manufacturer of PV cells? Currently, Mitsubishi Electric ...

Solar cells that work at night? Jeremy Korzeniewski

The Idaho National Laboratory, Microcontinuum, Inc. and Patrick Pinhero from the University of Missouri are developing an exciting new technology which uses "nano-antennas" to capture solar energy. ...

Solar power for consumers at $2 per watt? 2 years ago on Autoblog Green

From what I have heard, the efficiency of solar cells is at best about 40 percent or so. That is not good enough at current manufacturing costs to make it possible for the technology to compete with other forms of power that consumers can purchase. So, either the efficiency must increase or the cost ...

Using colored dyes instead of silicon for solar cells 2 years ago on Autoblog Green

Again, as we pointed out in a previous posting, solar power is likely the most environmentally source of power available, but there are problems associated with it. Currently, solar cells are not cheap enough, nor are they powerful enough to replace much of our existing power generation methods. The ...

Drag-racing, sunwise 3 years ago on Autoblog Green

While a vehicle speeding down 250 yards in 57 seconds doesn't sound very fast, it's the hare beating the tortoise when the 'vehicle' is powered by the sun. The winner was Brooks Solar and the contest was the second Annual Solar Drag Race. Held in Wenatchee, Washington, it is currently the only drag ...


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