Comments on: Toyota plans Prius with solar panels

Automaker plans to install solar panels on the roof of the next generation of the hybrid cars, using the energy collected to power the car's air conditioning, the Nikkei newspaper reports.

[fokkwp]

Toyota, you're doing good work, don't go all wiggy on us now.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Running the AC compressor when you're not in the car seems like a waste of power. I'd rather have it charge the vehicle's batteries when not in use. Even as a trickle charger, it would help when you're not driving the car (like at work or at home). Realistically, it's not anything more than a marketing gimmick for the amount of power delivered isn't enough to really do much for the car. Should be interesting though.

[jemiller0]

I would assume that it would be used for trickle charging the battery. Then, the battery would power the AC and everything else the same way it does now. They are supposed to be coming out with a plug-in Prius in 2010 also, although it sounds like it might only be available to commercial fleet customers initially. I hope the next version uses li-ion batteries. It would also be great if you could replace the NIMH battery pack in today's Prius with a li-ion pack at some point (just a battery replacement, not as drastic as an upgrade to a plug-in).

[k2dave]

Why does it only help run the a/c, why not use the solar panel to help charge the battery? or provide anything else the car needs. Does the solar panel do nothing if you don't use the a/c? From a plugin hybrid point of view I can see a benefit if it recharges the battery. You have your prius pluged in overnight, all nicely charged for your morning commute. At work you can't recharge it, but your prius sits in the sun in the parking lot all day with no power cord in sight, a perfect time to soak in all those rays and store them for your trip home.

[RompStar_420]

I think that full spectrum solar panels (currently very expensive) would be a great idea. They are used on the rovers sent to Mars, and one of the reasons why they have lasted this long.

[b_baggins]

Please. Solar panels are one of the most inefficient ways to power our space probes. The only reason they do it is because of people's hysteria over nuclear power. Put a nuclear battery in the mars lander and you could run it for 35 years, not some stupid measely 3 months, and you wouldn't have to waste half your power keeping the batteries warm and then design super-expensive equipment that can run on tiny amounts of electricity.

[No Man]

I'm thinking there must be a typo in that article. 2-5 kilowatts to power automotive air conditioning is WAY too high. You can cool a small house on a 2 kilowatt air conditioner, and an office building on a 5 kilowatt unit. A quick search for automotive compressors doesn't show many over 100 watts in power consumption. That size unit could be easily accommodated by a small solar panel.

[k2dave]

The quick search for automotive a/c's 100 watt assumes the addition of the engines mechanical power, which is not included. I believe the prius a/c is totally electrical. Going on household units, they typically run about 10 amp at 110 volts, or 1,100 watts, or 1.2 Kw. Car a/c's however are designed to be over powered, as it is not typical for houses to get over 120F sitting in the sun, and people are more tolerant in waiting a bit longer for a room to cool off then a hot car baking, people want that to cool off very fast. Though I don't know if that would bring the power requirement up to 2-5KW

[jlleventon]

definitly over power for the ac, that way, the brighter it got thru-out the day, besides that, the sun will not allways be shining on the car panel at optimum angles so efficiency is lost and overpower becomes a requirement

[RudiJH]

There are panels already for sale for the Prius that generate more than 200 watts, so that is feasible, at least in the most ideal of conditions.

Using the energy to power air-conditioning seems like a real missed opportunity. The real opportunity would be to capture power during the long periods of time that cars are left parked outdoors. A car parked for a week in a parking lot for example could generate 10 or more kilowatt hours to store in a battery.

As for the comments about this being tied into the AC power system of the car, that isn't going to be the case as the A/C runs on DC power in the Prius.

This may lead to some research and the sales may help bring down the cost of solar but I don't see how it could ever reach a break even cost benefit. As others have mentioned this is going to be valued for "green" bragging rights only.

Now a bio-diesel plug-in hybrid -- that would be green!

[Vegaman_Dan]

If the system could really generate any amount of power, I'd like to see it feed it back to the energy grid through an optional plug in. Your car could be making money for you while it is sitting there in the driveway.

[b_baggins]

10 kilowatt hours will let you drive your car for about 20 minutes.

[ouiving--2008]

Please re-read the article, it specifically states "will supply part of the 2 to 5 kilowatts".

[ss02906]

I get about 57 mpg of which 90% is highway driving on my Prius. I was rather surprised with that so I tracked the amount of fuel I put in and the miles I get on a full tank and it infact averages to 57mpg. I guess the route I drive on regularly is more or less flat and since we live in Denver the wind resistance is perhaps low compared to sea level. Nevertheless I can't wait for the PHEV feature, it currently costs about 10k to convert. I hear those Prius's avg 100 mpg while the aux battery is charged and goes back to default mpg once it is discharged. The cost of charging the battery from grid amounts to 99c. I am glad that toyota is taking the lead in doing the most obvious thing. Solar panel energy however trifle it may be, can add up to a substantial amount over the life of the vehicle. I would like to see some improvement in the current Prius, most importantly
1) plugin feature with tons of energy storage capacity- atleast 500 mile range on one charge.
2) Reduction of overall weight (think of the space shuttles - every lb matters coz it costs million $s),
3) increasing the ability to capture atleast 90% of braking energy (currently it captures may be a pathetic 30% at the most - they can do better ).
4) Aerodynamics ( there are 1000 things they can do to reduce wind drag, lessons can be picked up from aircraft industry)
5) Asthetics should be made to comply to the above technical factors. Everybody is boxed into thinking how a car should look like. Someone please get us out of this mental box!

Just these features combined can boost the mpg to 150 easy. I hope someone at Toyota or rest of lazy automakers are reading this. It's about time auto makers stop being fat, dumb and happy. This is a new paradigm, get with the program.

[jlleventon]

I was wondering if a photovoltaic panel could be molded into the actual body's external surface like a fiberglass panel that was tapped for voltage and current. . .I like the air conditioning dedication but must not overlook battery for lights, radio, horn total output would vary due to lattitude. and cleanliness habbits of owners. definitly usless if "garaged".

[pragmatist101]

there is NO WAY a car AC is going to take 2,000 to 5,000 watts. I have a solar panel, inverter,charger system on my trailer any my heat and air only uses 0.8 kw max and that is compressor starting wattage and probably 1/4 of that to power just the fan only. You'd freeze to death w/ a 5kw AC in the small space of a car cabin. LOL

[b_baggins]

Awesome. Now you can suffers thousands of dollars of damage to your car from a mild hail storm.

Brilliant.

[Manhattan2]

For those out there that understand how much of an error it is to put the added weight of solar panels to colect the energy at the poor angles that these panels will have to the sun please email us at [e-mail]. For those that are trying to be green but want solutions that make more sense than these type of PR moves email us at [e-mail]. For those of you that want to make a difference check out www.solartransfer.com . Please email we need your help. We feel selling panels for homes and now cars just to look green is an error that is adding to our problems.

[DocJacko]

This is old technology, and Toyota is definitely NOT the first automaker to incorporate this into a mass-production vehicle.
As another user said earlier, Audi has been offering this for a while. In fact, my family used to own an Audi A6 (not an A8!) back in the 1990's with solar panels on the roof that would power the air fans to cool the inside of the car (not the engine) while it was parked in the hot sun.
So there is really nothing new here. All it shows is how advanced German car makers are compared to the rest of the world.

[Dimitrius213]

I'm so fed up with this game of rising gas prices and these crooks ripping us off with one excuse after another while their coffers get packed with our money. This gas crisis is so out of hand, that I've resorted to drastic measures. Recently I converted my 04 Cadillac to utilize water as fuel from an easy to install kit, I obtained online from a company called Water4fuel.info

[carolinson]

Well, you gotta start somewhere. Hopefully the things can't be removed easily, so they won't get stolen. Idea: Solar garages to charge these contraptions. Have fun!

[chas1422]

These people who say this is all a gimmick are as myopic as a Detroit auto-exec. Once again the Japanese have shown the savy and foresight to continue the industrial world leadership. While it may be true that 200 watts, (0.3 HP), of power will only contribute a paltry 0.05% to auto performance, do not forget that your car sits in a parking lot, or in your driveway while you are not driving. This adds a lot of time to charge your batteries. Concievably, if you drive your car 5% of daylight time, and leave it in the sun the rest, as much as 1% of power can be generated from the roof. If everybody in the US saved just 1%, that would amont to 30-40 million barrels of oil per year. Wind power generates a paltry 1% of our electrical power, should we stop building windmills because they are "gimmicks". We will need many energy sources in the future, let's start with a little at a time rather than wait until we are depleted and desperate.

[chas1422]

I correct my last comment: 0.5% of operating power could come from the solar panel. If as I said before, 5% of your time is spent driving, and the rest of the time the car is sitting parked in the sun, in a state like Arizona, it is conceivable that the panels charging your battery could produce as much as 8-10% of the energy to drive your car. It is more realistic to assume 3-5%. This will contribute greatly if everybody participated. Not just a gimmick!

[chas1422]

I correct my last comment: 0.5% of operating power could come from the solar panel. If as I said before, 5% of your time is spent driving, and the rest of the time the car is sitting parked in the sun, in a state like Arizona, it is conceivable that the panels charging your battery could produce as much as 8-10% of the energy to drive your car. It is more realistic to assume 3-5%. This will contribute greatly if everybody participated. Not just a gimmick!

[MyTonyTiger]

Perhaps the solar panel would be better used simply to keep the batteries topped off? This would really benefit short commute drivers. They go to work 10 to 15 miles or so only on battery power. Park in the sun and get a nice charge, drive home. I would think some days they?d never use a drop of gas.