This solar roof question keeps popping up when talking about EVs. The return on investment calculation dismisses them, but the thought seems more to originate from "how to extend the range" question. And a lot of EV engineering deals with efficiency & saving power - so it remains an obvious question to harvest power while you are on the road.
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JRP3
Hyperactive Member
That sounds good, but the weight of the solar panels reduces their effectiveness and raises the centre of gravity. Until solar panels get much more efficient, they belong on the roof of your house, not on the roof of your car.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
In my dreams I see a transparent top including high efficiency solar panels on Tesla Models.
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But what if in 5 years Tesla will produce the transparent top of my dreams? Then brianman will tell me: "Raffy your dreams came true"
If I remember correct, the early versions of a Skoda Octavia test fleet had solarpanels. In standard daylight aka Germany it could produce 0,2 kWh. On a whole year basis it was expected to produce somewhere between 500-1000 kWh, which actually translates to stop the vampire-leak + add som range when parked outside with no available charger. If it is worth the cos`t? Probably not, but if optimized to produce more kWh it could be an actual range-saver in some settings.
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
Also the Class E Mercedes had the solar panels top. Don't know how much power they produced, but such a top was very nice to see. I think that TMC Members are right when they say that the power produced from such solar panels is too low to be worth installing them on Tesla Models. Hope that in the future such solar panels will have a higher efficiency.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I'd bet an integrated panel weighs less than the pano glass, as I discussed a few posts back, and no one seems to worry about the pano roof raising the center of gravity.
To me the pano serves no real function where a solar panel would.
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
Many cars like the Audi, use these small panels for things like summer ventilation. There, 10-20 Watts can run a small fan and do a lot to exhaust the hot air from the cabin, drawing in cool air from under the car. This can lower the cabin temperature 10's of degrees in a sunny, summer location when parked for hours. To get enough power to add more than a few miles of range a day, takes more area than the top of a car. As others have said, put the panels on the roof of your house, not the roof of your car.
Don't even give them the "until" bit. The problem is, even if solar cells were 100% efficient there's still no point in putting them on the roof of a car. Sunlight simply isn't that dense. It's not enough surface area to make a difference, and you don't want to be carrying the extra weight around.
I thought this bad idea thread had finally died a well-deserved death...
You'll know it's done after the government subsidizes this idea and we've spent 9 digits of taxpayer money realizing the mistake broadly.
Better to make the point clear in the thread where it's discussed than to bury the thread and have a new one spawn monthly or weekly.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
At some point they could be cheap enough and light enough that it does make some sort of sense. Maybe more sense than a pano roof that adds weight and cost but essentially provides nothing tangible in return.
http://www.gizmag.com/via-motors-solar-panel-tonneau-cover/29844/ :biggrin:
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Except it had been THREE months (not monthly or weekly) til revived by ... oh who was it, lemme think [cue jeopardy music] ... thinking .... wait, I have it, I have it! .... YOU!
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
:biggrin:
And Tesla would have to be able to sell it. And allocate the engineering resources. If it would have been a 5000$ option on the Karma, what would it cost on the Model S? Would anyone be interested in paying that?
And Tesla would have to be able to sell it. And allocate the engineering resources. If it would have been a 5000$ option on the Karma, what would it cost on the Model S? Would anyone be interested in paying that?
I take it you didn't notice that the thread is linked to by the FAQ wiki and that a recent re-raising of the idea was replied to with a link to that FAQ wiki entry. When commenting on a "new idea" and pointing to an "old entry" in a wiki, I like to make sure that what the wiki points to is actually useful. And prior to the new post, my prior reference to "the Fisker video comment" wasn't as useful as I wanted it to be.
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