by Meenakshi Sinha,TNN / Oct 28. 2007
Source: Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Around_the_world_in_a_solar_taxi/articleshow/2495823.cms
Louis Palmer dreamt of travelling around the world in a car when he was just 14. Twenty one years later, his dream saw the light of day when he invented an eco-friendly car powered only by solar energy. The 35-year old Swiss is now on a promotional world tour in his solar car, demonstrating that sustainable technologies are perfectly suited for everyday use, even to go around the world! “With this tour I want to show that solutions against global warming are available and that it can be stopped,” he says. He is currently in India, doing a tour of Mumbai, Udaipur, Delhi, Agra and Kolkata.
He has already travelled through all continents, by bicycle, ultra light airplane and a car. Palmer says the many signs of global warming that he came across disturbed him. “The weather has changed so drastically in almost all the 60 countries I visited, that people are alarmed. This prompted me to build my solar car, which I humorously call a ‘solar taxi’ as I take passengers for a ride.” His taxi is not only eco-friendly, but economical too. According to Louis, a compact solar taxi (without the trailer) could be built for Rs 3 lakh.
Developed by Palmer with the help of students from four Swiss technical universities over a period of one year, the solar taxi consists of a vehicle and trailer with solar cells – it’s 100% renewable energy with no polluting emissions. Palmer envisions a future where solar cells will adorn rooftops of houses so that people can charge their car batteries. “My idea is to have an energy bank of sorts, from which people can take as much electricity as they feed into the grid.So if you have solar cells on your rooftop feeding electricity into your grid, you can recharge your car electrically by taking as much from the grid. This way, you can ‘refuel’ along your journey and be unaffected by cloudy or rainy weather,” he says.
The solar taxi, which travels at a maximum speed of 90 kmph on its three wheels, is equipped with luxurious, leather-covered bucket seats guaranteeing both fun and comfort. The person in the passenger seat too can drive the vehicle as the steering slides across horizontally.
Palmer started his world tour on July 3, 2007 in Lucerne, Switzerland and travelled across Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. From Dubai, he shipped the solar car to Mumbai. “So far almost all car drivers that I came across have given me the ‘thumbs up’ sign of encouragement; sometimes they were curious to find out how it works,” he says. The route he takes for the rest of his tour will depend on the invitations he receives.
Armed with a screen and projector for presentations, his goal is to cover at least 50,000 km and visit 50 countries in five continents. If everything works out, this project will set a world record of being the first motor vehicle powered by non-fossil fuel to drive around the world.
He already has some interesting tales to tell from his experiences. In Syria, Palmer was involved in a crash when another taxi rammed into his car. But he promptly got police escort after that. “It was like real protocol, where even when I drove to a shop to buy a juice can, I was escorted by police cars and motorbikes with blaring sirens!” says Palmer. In Saudi Arabia, expecting stiff resistance for promoting a non-fossil fuel car, Palmer got the Saudi king himself to grant permission and also a 24-hour police escort in Riyadh.
While in India, Palmer hopes to highlight this alternative mode of mobility as he feels that a strong message from a developing economy is the need of the hour. “With so many petrol cars, polluted air, traffic jams and noise levels, quality of life is minimised. I can’t imagine how ill Mumbai will look 10 years from now with double the amount of cars.” Maybe, here’s a unique chance for India to embrace forward thinking.