Sunrise Solar Introduces Solar Sunroof for Cars
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.26.08
Sunroofs to Live Up to Their Name?
Sunrise Solar has introduced its Solar Sunroof, a replacement for regular car sunroofs that includes solar PV cells to produce electricity. This can help recharge the vehicle's battery, but it can also cool down the car when it's hot, and warm it up when it's cold.
Solar car roofs in general will probably make a bigger difference on plug-in hybrids and electric cars, though even that might not make a huge difference since the panel would be small and add some weight to the vehicle.
Solar Panels on Cars: Problems
As we wrote about recently, Toyota has plans to make a solar roof available for the next generation Prius. That sounds good, but it's probably still a better idea to keep the solar panels off the car and use them on houses or solar carports (that can also provide shade). That way you can keep them in the sun longer on average, cover a bigger area, and avoid adding weight to a vehicle, reducing its efficiency.
Waiting for More Details from Sunrise Solar
Lets not get too excited yet about the Solar Sunroof. The company's website doesn't give detailed specs or a price yet...
Details on the San Antonio, Texas-based company’s roof design and intended customers are scant. Is this an after-market item for DIYers to add to their cars or something aimed at automotive OEMs? Sunrise Solar hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment.
It's still an interesting concept, but probably won't be viable until we have a glut of inexpensive solar panels being produced, which isn't the case now.
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Yeah, as you say, it's cool, but even better to have a solar carport or something like that. Maybe when thin film solar is very cheap we can put it everywhere.
you're talking a max of about 100 watts if you cover the whole roof of a car. this is nowhere near enough to keep the A/C running.
it'd be enough to trickle charge your battery or keep the ventilation system running, though.
"you're talking a max of about 100 watts if you cover the whole roof of a car. this is nowhere near enough to keep the A/C running."
A whole roof could be more than 100 watts, but yeah, I don't think they mean keeping the A/C running. Probably just ventilation.
Note that the substrate for most solar panels is glass. So, you are essentially replacing glass with glass/silicon. The weight difference will probably be negligible.
At 20% efficiency (doable here, no inverters, all DC) if that panel is .5square meter then.... yeah 100 watts.
Whole roof you could get 200-250watts.
I see this kind of thing as ineffectual with current tech, though maybe it would be good publicity, to keep solar in people's minds.
When panels are cheaper, lighter, and more efficient, it will make perfect sense to put them just about anywhere energy is needed.
I live in Texas. When it's about 100°F outside, the interior of your car can get close to 200°F. Water boils at 212°F.
You literally have to unlock the car, open the doors and stand there while it vents out. If you just get in and shut the door, you can't breathe.
Venting alone would be a huge help in warmer climates like this.
100 watts won't spin up the main A/C unit, but it could spin up the vent fans and possibly an auxiliary, smaller A/C compressor. It might be able to sustain 100-200 BTU of cooling. Not enough to keep the car frosty, but good enough to make it more bearable to get into.
If you covered the roof, hood, and trunk with solar cells, you could generate 200-300 watts? I guess it would depend on the size of the car. What could you do with that amount of power? Ventilation easily, but also recharge the battery? How long would that take for a medium sized car with a 40 mile range?
The idea behind solar is trully amazing and will be so useful once the technology is efficient enough. There are a lot of companies coming out with electric cars, and some of them, like Aptera Motors (www.Aptera.com) are utilizing solar cells on their vehicles. But the efficiency isn't quite there to use a solar cell as a viable alternative to batteries or a generator. So instead of charging the batteries, Aptera is planning on using the solar cells to control the climate control system while the car is parked so that it is not burning hot inside when you come back from shopping or work or whatever else you may be doing.
It would be great to see solar sunroof powered air conditioning...
it's nice to see something that is versatile and can be used on most car models, as long as there's a sunroof. hopefully it'll grow into something more like the Solar Electrical Vehicles solar panels that can be only used on the Toyota Prius, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Rav4, and Ford Escape. That'll be nice.
it might not have enough power to charge the battery. it could however charge gadgets such as an ipod or phone