Indium Blog

Is it a Solar Powered Car?

Category:
  • Indium Corporation
  • Solar

  • Here’s a thought: Flash ahead 20 years and imagine you have solar panels on your house.  The energy you produce is used to feed the power grid in your area – along with the other houses on your street, in your town, in your county.  All this power is redistributed back to you, along with energy from other types of renewable and traditional energy sources.  The point is: part of this energy is solar.

     

     

     

     

     

    You drive home from work each day, pull into the garage, and plug your car into the outlet.  The energy you are transmitting is energy from the grid, a partially solar grid.  With this in mind, do you own a solar car? 

     

     

     

     

     

    To take it one step further – imagine you live off-grid, in a house 100% powered by solar energy.  Would an electric car be a solar powered car if you charge it from a solar powered residence?

     

     

     

    On a related topic:














    This is a picture of a solar powered parking meter – not a recharge station.  It did get me thinking though…  Paying for parking wouldn’t be as bad if it gave you something in return.  Maybe in the future the parking meters will also “fill up” your car with energy as you leave your car parked.
     

     

     

     

     

    Authored by previous Indium Application Manager Jim Hisert