SOLAR CARS

CONTENTS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. What are solar cars?....................................................................3 How do solar cars basically work?.............................................3 Advantages and disadvantages of solar cars...4 Hybrid solar cars.5 Component for BME..6 Component for APPLIED MATH..6 Component for BEE and PIC..7 Bibliography8

WHAT ARE SOLAR CARS?

A solar car is a solar vehicle used for land transport. Solar cars depend on PV cells to convert sunlight into electricity. Unlike solar thermal energy which converts solar energy to heat for either household purposes, industrial purposes or to be converted to electricity, PV cells directly convert sunlight into electricity. When sunlight (photons) strike(s) PV cells, they excite electrons and allow them to flow, creating an electrical current. PV cells are made of semiconductor materials such as silicon and alloys of indium, gallium and nitrogen. Silicon is the most common material used and has an efficiency rate of 15-20%. Another important aspect of solar cars is the solar car races which are held around the world for various teams to exhibit their versions of solar cars and evaluate the performance. The first solar car race was the Tour de Sol in 1985 which led to several similar races in Europe, USA and Australia.

HOW DO SOLAR CARS BASICALLY WORK?

Solar cars need sunlight to run. Most solar energy devices depend upon photovoltaic technology to convert sunlight to electricity. This principle is the same in the solar car. Solar cells are made up of
a pure form of silicon. These solar cells can convert up to twenty percent of the sunlight hitting them into electricity.

This electricity is channeled to and used by the electric motor of the car if it is running. When the car is not running the current is used to charge a battery pack. Battery power is used when sunlight conditions are not optimal. The battery pack is usually a collection of lithium ion batteries. This is the same kind of battery that operates cell phones and laptops. It usually takes only one day to fully charge the typical battery pack using the solar cell array.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOLAR CARS

The main advantage of using solar cars is that it runs on solar energy which is a renewable source of energy. Solar cars also do not produce any harmful emissions and are not expensive while in use (only the initial cost of obtaining the solar car). Solar cars are also recognized for their ability to work silently and produce no noise pollution. Unlike regular cars, solar cars are able to utilize their full power at any speed and they also have a low maintenance. While they are still a possibility, solar-powered cars are a long way off. There are a number of practical problems with solar-powered cars. Most importantly, it's difficult for the car's solar array to gather enough power to move the car. That's why most solar race cars only carry one person -- the extra weight of a passenger would tax the car's power. The way solar cars gather and store power is also a big issue. Solar power makes sense for buildings, the space station and even satellites because those structures are regularly exposed to the sun. These applications also have the ability to use batteries to store the energy the sun generates. A large battery pack -- with enough storage to power the car from sunset to sunrise -would make an electric car far too heavy, so a solar-powered car must be in the sun at nearly all times to be effective. That means solar-powered cars aren't very practical if you're in a tunnel, a covered parking garage or even if it's cloudy. Building rooftops, the space station and satellites also have the space for much bigger, more powerful solar arrays that allow them to gather more energy. For a car to harness the equivalent amount of energy, the vehicle proportions would have to be huge. Beyond that, there's the high cost of the solar panels. The type of solar panels used on solarpowered cars is very expensive. With that said, all of the hard work that's gone into solar-powered cars hasn't been a waste. The information that engineers have learned from building solar-powered cars has guided their work in other areas. This includes aiding in the development of smaller, more efficient solar arrays, as well as the development of solar panels that can be attached to gasoline-powered cars to increase their efficiency and decrease their fuel consumption. Another efficient method is the implementation of hybrid solar cars which may be run on either fuel, solar energy or on electrical energy.

HYBRID SOLAR CARS

As discussed in the previous discussion, cars which depend completely on solar energy cannot meet the requirements of the commercial transport vehicle. In order to make solar cars more viable, many strategies are pooled together in the solar car, which makes them more reliable. A solar car which does not entirely depend on solar energy but has electrical systems or an internal combustion system (running on fuel) to back it up is called a Hybrid Solar Car. A main advantage of Electrical vehicle over the internal combustion engine can thus be exploited in terms of no carbon emissions occurred due to only use the electric motor to drive the engine. Generally, a hybrid solar car is consists of six main parts: PV panel, electric motor, electric Generator, battery bank, IC engine and electronic controlling unit (ECU) respectively.

Astrolab, a Hybrid Solar Vehicle developed by the French company Venturi.

COMPONENT FOR BME:

The component chosen is the MATERIALS USED IN THE DESIGN OF HYBRID SOLAR CARS. Main components of hybrid solar car (1)PV panel convert sunlight into electricity, which is stored in batteries. Then its energy will be utilized for hybrid car propulsion. (2) Electric motor has, generally, been employed for driving the hybrid solar car. However, we can observe that the brushless DC motor is often operated in the hybrid solar car over the classical DC motor due to long lifetime operation, high speed and also high torque. (3) Electric Generator is self energy generated in a car during a regeneration brake or slop on a road. (4) Battery bank is an important component for the hybrid solar car which is used to supply to the electric motor and other electronic components. (5) IC engine has been employed for driving of hybrid solar car which can be used during a night or minimum electric energy of hybrid solar car. (6)Electronic controlling unit (ECU) is an electronics circuit that is used for controlling the energy in the electrical motor. Motivation: The efficient design of any solar car is the key to its optimum performance. Hence, designing of a solar car is, in essence, the most crucial stage where the dimensions, specifications and environmental factors need to be considered in order to get the output that we require.

COMPONENT FOR APPLIED MATHEMATICS:

In relation to Mathematics, the component chosen is the ESTIMATION OF COST AND EFFICIENCY OF A HYBRID SOLAR CAR. The power output of a hybrid solar car is quite impressive when compared to the power output of a solar car, at the same time; a hybrid solar car tends to be more expensive because of the vast technologies implemented in it. The reason for choosing this particular topic is that this is one of the most important factors which influence the viability of a solar car or its mass production. The solar cars used for the solar car races around the world are very different form the cars that we see on the road. They are bulkier and cannot keep up with the cars which run on IC engines. Hence, it is very important to analyze the efficiency of a solar car.

COMPONENT FOR PIC AND BEE:

The component chosen under these two subjects is TELEMETRY SYSTEM IN SOLAR CARS. Telemetry is a technology that allows data measurements to be made at a distance. The Wireless Telemetry System is an automatic remote monitoring device that collects and transmits vital data from sensors inside the solar car to its chase car through a wireless link. This data includes the battery voltage and current, the motor controller voltages and currents, the indoor and outdoor ambient temperatures, and the vehicles speed and location. In a telemetry system, there are various components which collect respective information. There is a close-knitted working between the computing system and electronic circuits which make this system effective. Motivation: The telemetry system increases the cost of the solar car but it is an integral part of the car which is used to monitor the performance of the car. A solar car without telemetry system cannot be improvised because there would not be sufficient information about its current standings. In fact, we would not even realize if there were to be a problem in its functioning. The recent developments in solar cars and the implementations of the new technologies are due to the fact that the previous solar cars had systems which monitored how the car performed. Hence, the telemetry system is a requirement in solar cars.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. www.ctuniv.org/magzine_solar_en_bhargav.pdf
HowStuffWorks "Pros and Cons of Solar-powered Cars" http://solarcar.engin.umich.edu/2013/01/solar-vehicles-and-american-culture/ http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/solcar1.htm http://www.miniscience.com/kits/CAR_SOLAR/