Solar Panels on Roof of car

So my question is why isn't the roof covered in solar panels?

Obvious challenges are the roof is not flat, but they have solar panels that you can roll up nowadays so they are quite flexible. Solar panels are also quite durable mine at the house can take about a golf ball sized hail hit without damage.

By guesstimating it looks Like the roof could hold about 400w of solar panels. I compared size of my 240w Sharp modules to guess this, I might be off

So while driving you could be getting as much as 400w pumped back in to the battery, not a whole lot but every bit helps! But I think the real benefit is sitting at work all day or at the mall or whatever and the car is getting 0.4kwh charge just because the sun is shining....

Wonder why this isn't done?

Two reasons I can think of (though neither I am knowledgeable about): Weight and cost.

Perhaps a roof full of solar panels might weigh too much? Though I would think solar panels are pretty lightweight, maybe it would still weigh much more than the normal roof?

Perhaps a roof full of solar panels might add too much cost to the car for the perceived benefit? Aren't solar panels pretty expensive?

And perhaps: Safety--a glass roof with solar panels may not stand up to a rollover (and thus not pass federal standards).

In any case I don't think the panels would generate enough electricity to be worth it (cost/benefit with cost being more than simply the expense of putting them on).

Well, perhaps, but the roof would still have to function as a roof -- that is, be strong enough for safety. There'd just be solar panels on it, in addition to the normal structure.

While not solar, the Model S has an option for a moonroof that is almost the size of the entire roof (well, almost the entire roof is glass, at least; I guess only half actually moves). I assume the car is still safe.

Sure and several Ford's have the option of "Panoramic Vista Roof" which is a large portion of the roof dedicated to glass--take a look at the new Lincoln MKZ's roof:

http://www.lincoln.com/cars/mkz/features/#page=Feature2

On the cost side it can vary anywhere from about $1.00 watt (cheap side ) to about a $1.50 on the high side... So 400 to $600 or so dollars for about 400w of power. Weight shouldn't be an issue they are pretty light.

It would seem possible in my mind...

I have to admit that when I first started looking into buying an electric vehicle, I saw that Ford was offering a 'roof solar panel' option for $10,000. At first I was shocked at the price of the option then I thought 'Hey, that's not so bad if it charged the car for free.' Well, my mistake was I thought they meant the roof of the car! I had visions of running around town in a vehicle that charged itself for free while it sat outside in the parking lot or driveway. Only later did I learn that they meant the roof of your house. :lol: I laughed my a$$ off at my naivety! Oh well, maybe someday in our lives we'll see the possibility of running around in cars and not polluting at all.

PowerstrokeNC said:

So my question is why isn't the roof covered in solar panels?

Obvious challenges are the roof is not flat, but they have solar panels that you can roll up nowadays so they are quite flexible. Solar panels are also quite durable mine at the house can take about a golf ball sized hail hit without damage.

By guesstimating it looks Like the roof could hold about 400w of solar panels. I compared size of my 240w Sharp modules to guess this, I might be off

So while driving you could be getting as much as 400w pumped back in to the battery, not a whole lot but every bit helps! But I think the real benefit is sitting at work all day or at the mall or whatever and the car is getting 0.4kwh charge just because the sun is shining....

Wonder why this isn't done?

Click to expand...

It is nice way to generate portable energy... Such system in widely used by the travelers..

Ford C-Max Solar Energi

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/01/12/Ford-goes-off-grid-Toyotas-fuel-cell-car-makes-splash/UPI-80821389522600/

The Fisker Karma has solar panels on the roof - I'm told it's to power the interior as well as provide some charge. Obviously they are out of business though

When I owned my Prius, I found the solar panels to be a disappointment. The cost was high, and they didn't charge the battery. Instead they only would circulate the cabin air, for cooling.

The problem is that there is not enough roof for the panels to generate a lot of energy.

Here's one of the discussions...

http://priuschat.com/threads/solar-roof.103358/

The panels are a nice idea if they don't cost much. Ford does have an innovative idea with the panel and the concentrator, but it wouldn't work for many people. You have to park outside, the parking space has to be oriented E-W, and the car has to have the freedom to move on its own as the sun moves.

The stated generation rate is 300W if I heard correctly...hopefully this is without the concentrator. Assuming you don't get the concentrator and just get the panel, the angle of the sun on the car's panel will not be optimal and hopefully you don't park in the shade. If you make a generous assumption that you can get a consistent 200W out of the panel for 8 hours in a day, the most energy you'll get is 1.6KWh. That's enough to drive 8 miles conservatively. At 10 cents / KWh, you save 16 cents a day or $58/year. How much will that option cost? Hopefully not more than $500.

But it is cool...and yeah, I'd probably buy it just for the cool factor.

Found this on ebay
Some other items on the page mentioned "2010 to 2012". So I assume this is from 2012. :?:


Toyota Prius 2010 SOLAR ROOF PANEL OEM

$900.00
Buy It Now


http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Toyota+Prius+Solar+Panel

well they actually do not do it cause and it's a bullshit answer but because the solar panel cannot fully recharge the drive battery in a single day the panels could at most replenish 15 to 20 miles of range to the battery in a day which is about my daily driving in my car to and from work as it's 24.4 kilometers to work and back home in a round trip and 20 miles is 32.1869 kilometer's 15 miles is 24.1402 kilometer's so sadly it would mean that I would never have to plugin except maybe the odd time in winter

Raven - not sure where you got those numbers for how many miles a solar panel could charge the car. To date, nobody has been able to build solar panels on a car that would do any significant charging. If you're referring to that article from the 2014 CES show and thinking that might be built. Think again, that was a concept presented at CES, not anything remotely production ready.

Musk has been very clear about solar panels, he won't do them. They make no sense on a car. On a house, at charging stations, all over the place - they make sense. There isn't enough surface area to generate any really useful electricity.

All the solar panels on cars to date have been marketing. Nissan Leaf had one for a ventilation fan, Fisker - yeah we know where that went, the Prius clearly expensive and didn't work...