Solar Cells Info

By David C. Henley, Publisher Emeritus, January 4, 2008
Source: LahontonValleyNews.com
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20080104/Opinion/754277291

Gasoline, natural gas and electricity costs have risen to stratospheric levels. Americans also are showing mounting concern about our dependence on foreign oil and the degrading of the environment.  In desperate efforts to find substitute fuels, scientists are experimenting with alternative sources such as ethanol, hydrogen fuel cells, biodiesel, geothermal, wind power and the sun.

Research is even being undertaken to turn algae, wood and paper waste, and the ocean’s waves into electricity to power the nation’s 250 million cars and trucks and run our homes, offices and factories.  Seventy-two miles south of Fallon, a group of young people is also doing its part to help solve the fuel crisis.

While we see others throughout Nevada rushing to provide alternative power sources from the sun, such as the U.S. Air Force completing work on a solar power plant at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas and the building of a solar power generating station near Boulder City by Nevada Power Co., students at Mineral County High School in Hawthorne are working with the sun to develop a solar-powered car.

Traveling recently to Hawthorne to visit with the student solar-powered car team and its sponsor, teacher Chris Bartley, I met with the kids who are putting together the vehicle they hope will be completed by May or June so they can display it throughout the state.

“We first want to show the car to the people of Hawthorne, and then we hope to bring it to Fallon to exhibit it at the Rattlesnake Raceway, Top Gun Raceway and the annual Labor Day weekend Cantaloupe Festival,” Bartley told me.

Funds for purchasing Hawthorne’s solar car came from local civic groups and businesses, raffles and car washes, Bartley said. The vehicle’s chassis was purchased from another high school solar club in California, and now the Hawthorne students are assembling the car’s solar panels, motor, steering mechanism and controls.

“We’ve got a fantastic group of kids on our team here, getting extra academic credit for the project and learning about solar power and how it someday may lessen our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Bartley as she pointed out club leaders Chastyn Ruch, Jonathan Hurt and Tony Fritsch.

The solar car receives it power from large solar panels affixed to the vehicle’s roof and sides. The panels transfer the sun’s power to 10 batteries that in turn run the engine.  “As long as sun shines and stores energy in the batteries, we will be able to run our solar car forever,” Bartley exclaimed.

Before she came to Mineral County High School two years ago, Bartley taught at a 180-student high school in Colorado. But despite the school’s small size, she assembled a student solar car club there as well, and it participated in a cross-country race comprised of other student groups sponsored by the Dell and Winston companies.

“Hawthorne is wild about our solar club. We raised more than $4,000 locally by selling snow cones during the Armed Forces Parade celebrations and received a lot of donations from clubs in the city and county,” she said.

When I asked her if solar power to run vehicles will ever be scientifically and financially possible, she said, “It’s not feasible in today’s technology because the batteries are not strong enough, but someday in the near future it’s a real possibility.”

Indeed, although the mass production of solar-powered vehicles is a long way off, General Motors, Ford and other automobile manufacturers are experimenting with the vehicles in efforts to develop longer-lasting batteries, stronger and lightweight engines, and more effective solar panels that will power the cars faster and for longer distances.  Next year, a French firm is expected to launch a hybrid solar-electric car prototype utilizing power from solar panels and electricity, testifying to automakers’ interest in solar power.

Another example of the success in solar power research is the world’s first sun-powered voyage across the Atlantic last year by a 46-foot boat built by a Swiss firm. The boat, which traveled from Spain to the Caribbean island of Martinique and then to New York, produced 2,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy from rooftop solar panels that powered the vessel’s batteries and motors at an average speed of 6 knots.

In the Netherlands, a dozen solar-powered boats undertook a six-day, 140-mile race in 17 hours averaging about eight miles per hour. The winning entry, from the Netherlands’ Delft University, resembled a miniature aircraft carrier, with the solar panels being mounted in rows atop the flat decks.

The Hawthorne students’ solar car has room for only one person, the driver, and when fully operational will be able to reach about 25 miles per hour.  But solar energy may be the wave of the future, says Bartley.  And, she adds, the sun’s rays are free.

When the Hawthorne team gets its car up and running, I hope it will travel north to Fallon so we may have the opportunity to see this wave of the future and meet the sharp young people who are its driving force.