Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Two clear reasons (for cars).1. It is not commercially viable.
2. It is not and probably never well be technically viable.
1) Commerce.
As those posting before me rightly explain, solar cells are very expensive, and the prototype cars built by Honda to carry just one person with no luggage at speeds of upto 50mph cost over a million dollars to build.
2) Technical Limits.
A family car today uses about 30 Kilowatts of energy (the same as 15 hairdryers) and needs this much to haul you and your luggage about.
As a poster above has pointed out, solar cells only convert about 20% of sunlight to electricity, but on top of that, only about 1Kw of sunlight falls on every square metre....
What this means is, with present technology, a family car would need a 150 Square Metre solar sail to supply it enough power to move, in full sunlight on a clear day. Which isnt really very practical as the roof size of a typical car is only 4-5 square metres.
The situation for boats and trains is no better.
Solar power is a good solution for things like heating water or supplying electricity to your home, but for powering cars and the like, there just isn%26#039;t enough energy in the sun to make it work for the types of cars most of us drive (i.e. that carry several people and luggage). And a prototype vehicle that can do 50mph carrying one (slim) person and no luggage can only reach 40-50mph on the flat, and costs over $1,000,000 to build. 43% 3 Votes
Other Answers (10)
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The technology isn%26#039;t good enough for solar power to drive cars yet. They cannot produce the wattage and need hot sunny climates to perform. In Australia I believe they had a solar contest but the max speeds were very slow. Under 20mph average. They had a lot of cars unable to complete the full course across the continent, as well.
0% 0 Votes
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I had the same idea (I emailed Toyota to suggest them to put convex solar cells on their hybrids)
There%26#039;s just NOT ENOUGH POWER. Can you imagine how much power is needed to move a 1 ton vehicle?
My guess about 10 times the surface of the roof
For a train even more power. To move a train with solar my guess about 100 time the surface of the roof. That would be a weird looking train.
But it can help hybrid type propulsion or auxilary (eg power the radio or radar of a boat).
And solar panels are getting more efficient
We were 10 percent, today 20 percent, in 10 years 50 percent? 0% 0 Votes -
because we have enough oil to last us for the next 1000 years, that%26#039;s why. there is no shortage of oil. wake up
0% 0 Votes
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It%26#039;s currently expensive, and even though they have some technology, it isn%26#039;t to the point where it%26#039;s as efficent as gas. It would end up costing more money currently than gas costs. In Solar power, scientists only can capture about 20% of the sun%26#039;s power. It%26#039;s just not quite there yet.
0% 0 Votes
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I live in the UK
using solar power I would probably manage about 3 miles before coming to a halt
When the sun shines here people run in panic wondering what the big bright ball is 0% 0 Votes -
Mainly price, but a solar panel that size wouldn%26#039;t provide enough power to make a difference.
Who do you mean by %26quot;we%26quot; when you say %26quot;we need to think of other sources of power%26quot;. Car companies? Are you part of that? 0% 0 Votes -
As of right now, solar cells are not cost efficient. It can take decades to actually start saving money by solar powering your house. As for vehicles, the time/battery life ratios are not efficient enough, a lot of people prefer driving at night which would result in a pure drain on the battery. Some people also will drive all day and into the night which would not allow a good input/output ratio.
14% 1 Vote
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Cause solar panels are made of the same expensive materials used in a computer. They are easily damaged. They require energy to be manufactured which takes several years to be offset by the solar energy. They produce energy very slowly and require expensive and poisonous batteries to store the energy.
14% 1 Vote