Energy Conversion in Solar Cars

Today’s so-called “eco-friendly” solar cars possess many “not so green” traits that drag down everything from the assembly line to the consumers driving the cars. The fact of the matter is that it all comes down to the process of the energy conversion, from solar to electric energy. Unfortunately, this process needs a significant amount of improvement before you see it being mass-produced, let alone in the showroom and on the road. The process of energy conversion must be drastically changed due to the current process’ lack of efficiency and insufficiency when it comes to mileage.
Energy conversion in the solar cars is unfortunately not as simple as one might think, and as of now is extremely inefficient. It isn’t simply putting a solar panel on the roof of your car and hoping that everything “just clicks”. The invention of photovoltaic cells, the process of solar energy conversion, required an immense amount of engineering, mathematics, and energy science. And its lack of efficiency has many aspects. First of all, the price of a solar car ranges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, something that most Americans can’t afford. Consequently, even if people are able to afford it, they are not willing to. In fact, a survey done by Plug In America suggested that 76% of Americans didn’t even know that solar cars existed, and of the remaining polltakers, 63% said they weren’t willing to “support a lost cause”. The second big problem of the energy-conversion process is the materials needed for the photovoltaic cells, which include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium sulfide. (Source: Florida Solar Energy Center) Although these are not necessarily rare, they are hard to extract, and are further more difficult to morph into the correct form. Because of this obstacle, many scientists studying the problem concentrate on finding new materials to substitute the old ones that might be more efficient in the extraction process. Finally, one of the biggest problems yet is the sheer fact that the PV cells cannot function effectively due to many things, including cloud cover and materials that just don’t meet the needs of people’s commutes and daily lives. All in all, the photovoltaic cells used in solar cars is inefficient, and without major improvements in the way they work and the materials used in them, they will not be able to meet the needs of the daily lives and commutes of Americans.
PV cells, simply put, cannot meet the needs of an average car consumer, due to its pricey tendency and lack of efficiency. According to the Washington Post, the average American miles per gallon is 23.6 mpg. Unfortunately, “a high-class solar car only can go up to about 17 mpg”, calculates Dr. Elinora Stoney, a PhD and professional in energy sciences. She also says, “Americans simply will not buy a car that gives them insufficient mileage. It’s out of the question,” she says, “mostly because more and more are ‘car-aware’ when buying a car and know what a good mileage is, and what they need.” Another major insuffiency with PV cells is the fact that they cannot harness the sun without the sun. Although this might seem very obvious, it boils down to people not realizing that every day is not a sunny day. On cloudy, rainy, or stormy days, the energy conversion cannot take place, by definition. Because of this unfortunate case, the PV cells have to be improved. There should be better materials found for the cells, and the process of building the cells themselves have to be seamless. On top of this, the prices have to be reduced. But they cannot be diminished magically, although many people wish that they could. The materials have to be made cheaper; otherwise the car company will be at loss. Also, the car has to be made more durable because of the already high damaged panel incidents, and the cost of fixing them; on top of it all, the mileage has to somehow be increased. Before all of this happens, the solar car cannot and will not be in the showrooms for sale. Until then, they have to stick to the lab experiments and the harsh critic reviews.
Improvement in the energy-conversion process in solar cars is necessary in order for the technology to hit the market and be successful. As of now, they are much too expensive for the average American, and don’t really have much to offer. From the limited materials of the photovoltaic cells to the lack of sufficiency in its energy extraction process, or even the comfort and mileage that the car consumer would look for, the solar cars do not cut it. Major improvements must be made to the whole car in general, especially the core of the problem: the conversion from solar to electric energy.