Even at $3 a gallon we know that all the costs of gas are not included in the
price, not least of which is the $300 billion dollars in tax money spent on
our Iraq fiasco to secure access to Mid-East oil supplies. The impact of greenhouse
gas emissions, environmental degradation from extraction and pollution are more
difficult to quantify.
Objections to electric cars often center on the fact that charging up an electric
car requires electricity and electric generation has its own costs, including
the fact that many power plants use fossil fuel as well.
Below find a modest proposal to address the problem and the objections to electrics.
The current crop of hybrids has shown the way. Using a gas engine and an electric , hybrids can approximately double efficiency. Some Prius owners have pimped their rides to get 80MPG but they are merely expanding battery power and plugging in their cars.
What I propose is to lay solar cells on top of the car body and use the free, renewable power of the sun to that hybrid combination to reduce gasoline consumption close to the goal of zero. Here's how
Math:
12000.00 |
miles a year average driving |
1000.00 |
miles a month average driving |
36.63 |
theoretical kwh in gallon of gas |
0.25 |
efficiency factor of internal combustion engine |
9.16 |
actual kwh in gallon of gas |
0.13 |
kwatt/m2 of solar cells at peak insolation at 1kw/m2 and conv. Eff. Of
.13 |
8.54 |
m2 dimensions of a Camry's top surface |
1.11 |
kw peak power from cells covering a Camry |
5.00 |
hrs average peak insolation US ( # of hours where the sun deliver 1kw/m2) |
5.55 |
kwh per day from solar cells on car surface |
0.88 |
efficiency of solar energy from cells to wheels |
4.88 |
kwh/day of solar available (total kwh times efficiency factor for electric
cars) |
0.53 |
gallons of gas (kwh per day from car surface / actual kwh in gallon of
gas) |
32.88 |
miles a day average driving (miles per year / days per year) |
23.00 |
mpg for car |
1.43 |
gallons/day for an average car |
0.40 |
kwh/mi for an average car (actual kwh per gallon / MPG average car) |
0.19 |
kwh/mi for GM ev1 |
29.20 |
per day from Sun for GM ev1 |
3.00 |
dollars/gallon of gas |
1.60 |
dollars a day |
1565.22 |
$ in gas per year for average car |
800.00 |
$ in gas per year for hyrbid |
89.46 |
$ in gas for solar hybrid (miles per day driven - miles available daily
from solar cells time days per year / MPG of hybrid) |
One could object to any one of the numbers, but it takes a whole lot of tinkering
to make this plan a loser. If and when gas creeps up to $5 a gallon, its going
to look even better.
If 40% of our oil use is for cars, using technology like this could conceivably
cut our oil use by 30%. Think about it.