Solar Car-A New Method of Transportation

Solar Car-A New Method of Transportation 

Solar car of the University of New South Wales

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYtWl0TtaKU

  

  As the video shows, the solar car made by the University of New South Wales is called Sunswift. The shape of the car is similar to a normal private car with four wheels and a steering wheel. And this kind of new car is used for land transport.

  Solar cars combine technology typically used in the aerospace, bicycle, alternative energy and automotive industries. There is a severely limitation of amount of energy input into the car. It depends on a solar array that uses photovoltaic cells (PV cells) to convert sunlight into electricity. Like a electrical car, the solar car also uses the electricity as the power.

  In this video, the UNSW students build the solar car with the solar array on the surface of the car to catch the sunlight. This must be a environmental friendly design for the future transportation. The conventional cars use fossil fuel as the power, the emission of these cars are harmful to our environment. Although there is another kind of car named electric car, the solar car can create electricity during its running, while the electric car need to be charged before it runs on the road.

  However, there are some drawbacks of solar cars that the designers need to find out the solutions. First of all is the efficiency. It is acknowledged that the efficiency of solar panels is not very high, to be more specific, the rate of the converting is low and the power provided by the electricity is lower than the burning the fossil fuel. Secondly, the speed limitation is another problem should be solved in the future. If the speed is too slow, the solar cars may lose its competitive power. As the result, the consumers won't choose the solar car as their transport tools. Thirdly, if it is easy to recharge the solar car?

  Only when those limitations are having been solved, the solar car can be the best choice of a land transportation. And I know that in the future, the solar car will replace the conventional car because of the environment and energy resources.