I imagine most of us are busy attempting to comprehend the Iowa caucuses tonight, but there is in fact other stuff happening in the world. One such event that caught my attention was the demonstration of an electric bus partially powered by solar energy in Uganda of all places. Uganda has mostly come to the attention of the West for its prodigious hatred of homosexuality, which many American conservative Christians have been happy to augment.
There’s nothing particularly unusual about electric buses. The Chinese company BYD motors has been building them for some time. The Ugandan example, which is produced by the local Kira Motors, is unusual for two reasons. Firstly, it is intended to be built by Ugandans in Uganda. Economic development is always welcome in the developing countries of Africa, and it is encouraging to see it being directed towards building electric vehicles. Africa’s growing megacities will need fleets of buses, and it would be great if they didn’t choke people to death as do diesel buses. The second reason the Kayoola bus, as it is called, is unusual is that it has solar panels on its roof.
For most vehicles, it really doesn’t make much sense to carry around solar panels. Electric vehicles are already heavy, and adding more weight could decrease the vehicle’s range by more than the extra range provided by the panels’ output. Solar panels do best pointed south (in the Northern Hemisphere) or north (in the Southern Hemisphere) angled at approximately the local latitude. Sitting on a bus’s roof pointed straight up, the output of these panels can’t be all that great, but I’m sure the people at Kira took that into account before deciding the weight and expense was worth it. Even with the panels, the Kira only has 80km (50 miles) of range, making it suitable only for city transit service. The low range is compensated by its low cost, which Kira estimates at $58,000 per bus.
Good luck, Kira Motors! Let’s hope you help change Uganda’s reputation from backwater to bellwether.