Solar Powered Wheelchairs On the Run
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 05.26.08
Here's the happy result of a meeting of the hearts and minds of an environmental activist and a small innovative company. A newly disabled woman realised that she was dependent on electric batteries to power her wheelchair around the countryside where she lived. Working with Beamer, a design and engineering firm, they modified an existing outdoor model, the Tramper, and made this partially solar--powered wheelchair. It was already heavy-duty and designed to travel over fields. The addition of the solar panels can extend its range by about 20%. The company is now researching the use of lithium iron batteries that could double the distance that it can travel.
As for its happy owner, she has now planned a solar-powered wheelchair cavalcade, the SolaRola. In order to publicise her campaign for solar powered wheel chairs, and sustainable energy sources, a fleet of solar powered vehicles will be travelling 120 miles from London to Bath, along back country roads. They will be accompanied by a solar-powered ice cream van from Yeo Valley Organic. In Bath at an agricultural fair there will be events highlighting ecology and sustainability, featuring the wheelchairs ridden by celebrities and Para-Olympians. :: Guardian
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Nowif they would only take this knowledge and use it for other transport designs such as cars, trucks, trains, etc.-but they won't because the oil and power monopolies don't want to give up the grip on their massive and outrageous profits. And even if they would the starting price would be so high with so many legal contractual terms attached that the already enslaved and manipulated consumer would only be more of the same. Henry Ford made his product affordable because he had a vision of progressive mobility. Free the energy and free the people.