MikeBoxwell
Well-known member
In nature, leaves generate energy for the tree by photosynthesizing. So presumably, the Nissan LEAF should photosynthesize too?
This was the silly comment I made to the head of the LEAF project at Nissan's European R&D team last month. It turned into quite an interesting discussion about the potential for a solar roof for the car.
As you probably already know, the Nissan LEAF has a tiny solar panel on the rear spoiler. It really is tiny - I estimate around 5-6 watts per hour on a really good day, which is pretty much useless for everything other than maybe charging up a mobile phone.
We ended up doing some quick estimates based on the power requirements of the car and the size of the roof to see what would be possible.
The figures were quite interesting. The roof of the car is large enough to fit a 300 watt panel - possibly slightly more with some fiddling around. We calculated that this could provide enough power to drive the car. Over a period of a year, we calculated that the solar panel would produce enough energy to drive between 2,800-3,000 miles each year in California or Florida. Further north the figures are still respectable: around 2,000 miles in Chicago or Seattle, for instance.
In Europe, the figures aren't quite so good. In damp and dull London, for instance, the range would be down to around 1,400-1,500 miles a year. But then again, England doesn't ever get a summer (it had one last year but I missed it - I was in the bathroom at the time). For a car that isn't designed to be a sun powered car, with seating for five people and highway performance, I think that is pretty impressive.
The downside? Of course there has to be one and in this case its cost. The additional cost per car would be in the region of $4,000 which makes it just far too expensive to be considered as a useful option. However, solar prices are continuing to drop. Within 3-5 years, I wouldn't write off the possibilities of Nissan offering a proper solar panel on the top of their LEAF electric car at a much more reasonable cost.
This was the silly comment I made to the head of the LEAF project at Nissan's European R&D team last month. It turned into quite an interesting discussion about the potential for a solar roof for the car.
As you probably already know, the Nissan LEAF has a tiny solar panel on the rear spoiler. It really is tiny - I estimate around 5-6 watts per hour on a really good day, which is pretty much useless for everything other than maybe charging up a mobile phone.
We ended up doing some quick estimates based on the power requirements of the car and the size of the roof to see what would be possible.
The figures were quite interesting. The roof of the car is large enough to fit a 300 watt panel - possibly slightly more with some fiddling around. We calculated that this could provide enough power to drive the car. Over a period of a year, we calculated that the solar panel would produce enough energy to drive between 2,800-3,000 miles each year in California or Florida. Further north the figures are still respectable: around 2,000 miles in Chicago or Seattle, for instance.
In Europe, the figures aren't quite so good. In damp and dull London, for instance, the range would be down to around 1,400-1,500 miles a year. But then again, England doesn't ever get a summer (it had one last year but I missed it - I was in the bathroom at the time). For a car that isn't designed to be a sun powered car, with seating for five people and highway performance, I think that is pretty impressive.
The downside? Of course there has to be one and in this case its cost. The additional cost per car would be in the region of $4,000 which makes it just far too expensive to be considered as a useful option. However, solar prices are continuing to drop. Within 3-5 years, I wouldn't write off the possibilities of Nissan offering a proper solar panel on the top of their LEAF electric car at a much more reasonable cost.