WEBVTT - Flying Solar 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.360 Forward Thinking there and welcome to Forward Thinking, the podcast 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.800 that looks at the future and says, let the sunshine, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.800 Let the sunshine in the sunshine in. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.040 I'm Lauren Poke, and I'm Joe McCormick. And Hey, solar Power, 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.040 Solar Power. I have a question for you, Jonathan, ask 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.159 me your question. Okay, So, I know there's this great 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.720 cost about getting rockets into space because you've got to 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.720 use all this fuel and all that. Why don't they 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.440 just make solar powered rockets. That's a great question. It's 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.920 not sure it is. Think of it this way. The Sun. 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.360 The Sun is a very powerful object, right, and there's 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.600 even more of it in space and and and the 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.840 energy that we're using on Earth, most of it, in 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.760 some form or another, we owe to the Sun. If 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.400 you trace it back far right, that's true. Well, yeah, 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.720 it's almost all solar I guess maybe not like geo thermal. 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.880 But if you're talking about wind power, well that's driven 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.759 by pressure differentials that are caused by the Sun heating 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.920 the crust of the Earth. Uh. If you're doing solar power, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.040 of course that's solar. If your coal is technically plants 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.320 and animals that have been compressed over a long period 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.160 of time, and where that's part of the light cycle, 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.479 it's yeah, they made their energy from solar exactly. Light 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.640 cycles just make me think of tron Even hydroelectric, you 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.280 could say, is solar because the sun heats the oceans, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.560 which causes the water vapor to rise up and then 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.839 travels up, rains down, and then the rain coming down 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.480 from the upper elevations is what powers those turbines at 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.520 the hydroelectric plants. Yeah. So I don't see why your 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:52.560 question is so silly unless you're talking about using solar panels. Yeah. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.120 Well the officially problem. I don't think you could power 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.920 a rocket with electricity in any case probably no, No, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.400 that will not be do not really work? No, Okay, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.160 So what we're really getting at here is that solar 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.720 power there are some problems with efficiency, which we've talked 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.040 about before. Solar panels have an efficiency that for the 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:18.880 consumer market tends to top out right around something like that. Uh. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.400 There are some prototypes and some that are used for 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.919 very high level uh like space application stuff that keeps 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.720 you know, satellites power that kind of thing that can 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.160 reach somewhere in the realm of in lab conditions. But 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.919 those are under ideal circumstances. And so we're talking about 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.799 not even being able to capture all the energy that 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.760 comes in through the sun. So the sun hits these panels, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.799 the panels are only able to capitalize on twenty of 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.240 the energy that's hitting it. And then on top of that, 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.680 you have to worry about when the sun is not shining, 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:59.000 it doesn't translate into that much electricity. It's uh, it's 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.800 one of those things where you might say, hey, what's 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.400 the point and even trying to make a solar powered vehicle, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.600 but that hasn't stopped people from making solar powered vehicles. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.680 No kidding, solar powered vehicles. Let's talk about those today. Okay, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.680 that sounds good. I was I was ready to talk 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.880 about the Age of Aquarius. But we can switch gears. So, yeah, 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.600 it's solar power, renewable energy source. Right, you don't have 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.680 to worry about running out of it. Uh. If if 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.240 we run out of solar power, we have bigger problems. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.880 We've we've sort of run out of life. Yeah, it's 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.239 also probably about four billion years in the future. Yeah, 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.600 so we've got some time. I mean, you know, don't 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.400 like plan ahead too far. You know, we've got to 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.440 have some flexibility here. But then it's also it's clean energy. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.440 At least the actual energy you get is clean. Right. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.080 The way we have to create stuff to capture that 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.280 energy may or may not be clean. We'll talk about 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.640 that in a second. But the you don't have to 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.960 worry about you're not creating um greenhouse gas emissions by 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.840 using this. It's just clean electricity. So there are reasons 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.560 people have been really interested in using solar panels and 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.480 solar power to make vehicles go. You also don't have 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.600 to stop somewhere specific and refill it basically anywhere the 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:13.840 sun is shining. I mean, there's a reason you would 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.440 put solar panels on say a Mars rover that it's 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.440 it's continuously replenishable as long as you're basically outdoors in 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.320 a place where you can get sun. Right. You don't 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.200 have to go to Mars and pre build gas stations 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.240 there right right, So that's you know, a huge advantage. Uh. 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.600 And these are these are really important things that people 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.840 have looked into. Two while designing you know, some some 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.320 really cool vehicles in various ways, not just we're gonna 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.240 be talking about lots of different types. We're gonna talk 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.640 about some cars, boats, and even some some planes, some 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.880 aircraft that use solar power to generate the thrust they 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.720 need to fly, which is pretty phenomenal when you think 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.359 about it. I don't believe you, except I do because 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.880 we've talked about it a little bit before. But did 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.400 I not. Were I not to know about it already, 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.640 I wouldn't leave you. Yeah, yeah, because again we're thinking 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.039 about the fact that solar a single solar cell is 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.599 not generating that much electricity, and you think about the 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.040 amount of power you need to have an electric motor 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.400 capable of, say turning a propell or fast enough to 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.320 generate thrust or to propel a car forward so that 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.960 it can race along, uh the Australian Outback, because we'll 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.200 be talking about that too. Um, it's pretty phenomenal stuff. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.080 It does mean that people have had to make some 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.880 big advances in everything from solar panel technology to battery 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:39.320 technology to just engineering the design of aircraft and h 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.360 and other vehicles. So let's talk about some of the 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:43.880 reasons before we do that. Let's tell us some of 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:49.080 the reasons that are kind of the downside of solar power. So, 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.360 for one, we we kind of mentioned, you know, you 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.839 kind of have to have sunlight. If you don't have sunlight, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.359 then you're not getting power. Right. It's more useful perhaps 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.240 in some regions than in other regions. And you need 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.599 to work out that entire thing where if the sun 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.000 isn't shining and you still want to drive your car 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.599 or boat or etcetera, then you have to you have 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.440 to have some sort of energy storage device or else 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.720 you don't go. You've got the problem that it just 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.080 simply isn't as powerful as say an internal combustion engine 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.240 or like a really big battery stored up with energy 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.279 from the socket. Right, even if you did have a 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.400 battery and you were using the solar power to charge 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.560 the battery, in general, you're not. It's hard to generate 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.600 the same kind of torque that you would get from 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.800 an internal combustion engine. You might be able to go 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.640 really fast, because I mean, the Tesla Roadster goes really 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.240 fast and it's an electric car. You could in theory 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.080 charge that electric vehicle using solar power. You would just 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.560 not need to drive that car for a while to 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.320 be able to get enough electricity to to charge it 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.799 to a decent amount. Yeah, there's not enough continuous turnover 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.200 of power from the panels themselves to power that kind 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.800 of strength. Actually, you're you're relying specifically on the energy 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.159 stored within the battery, and then you would have to 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.320 use the solar power to to regenerate that energy. But 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:13.760 also solar panels rely on what we call rare earth elements, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:18.200 stuff that appears in trace amounts in certain parts of 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.640 the world, and usually it's it's combined with other stuff. 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.640 So you have to do some pretty um, pretty extreme 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.000 measures to separate the stuff you need from the stuff 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.120 you don't want, like dipping it into acid baths, so 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.720 it melts away all the stuff you don't want and 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.000 you're left with the rare earth elements that are really 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.320 important for creating things like solar panels. These are also 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.800 important for things like wind turbines. This is the ugly 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:47.600 side of renewable energy, where the production of the stuff 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:51.840 we use to make those things clean technologies is kind 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.760 of dirty. Yeah, especially if you're not taking extra care 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.760 during the production cycle. So you may have heard that 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.400 a lot of the rare earth elements are being produced 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.840 out of China, and China has something somewhere depending upon 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.160 whom you ask, somewhere between twenty three and thirty seven 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.240 percent of the world's supply of rare earth elements in 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.400 this country, which is which is a good amount. But 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.160 the reason that we get most of that stuff from 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.960 China is because China produces it very cheaply, mostly because 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.280 they don't care about their workers or the environment, although 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.640 that is they're saying that they're changing that, but this 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.760 is where it's going to get really kind of difficult 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.439 and political. So China, while it has maybe somewhere around 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.800 a quarter to maybe a third of the world's supply 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.959 of these rare earth elements, is actually supplying closer to 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.679 of all of the ones that are being used today. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.080 So I mean, that's a it's enormous. And the reason 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:52.160 for that, like you said, Lauren, is because they're cheaper 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.000 coming out of China than they are in other places 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.079 in the world. One of the reasons is that China 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:02.080 has created these huge lakes of pollutants, really uh from 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.520 the mining process. So when they're separating out those rare 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.360 earth elements from everything else you get these very toxic 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.720 pools that are forming and can cause some really serious 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:17.200 health hazards in the populations around that. And uh, recently, 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.080 like within the last few years, China has been cutting 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.800 back on the number of rare earth elements that allows, 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.400 like the amount that it allows to export from China. Now, 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.080 the official explanation for that is that they want to 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:35.840 put in more controls to be environmentally conscious, which that's noble. 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.240 We want to see and environmentally conscious approach. And I 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:40.640 was being a little bit cheeky. I don't think that 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.200 China totally doesn't care about its people are its environment. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.440 I just think that for for for a while, it 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.839 has been less of a concern than perhaps it should 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.560 have been. Yeah, these are all most not all, I 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:54.160 will say, most of the minds are state run and 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.040 uh it doesn't look it looks like most of the 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.360 money is going to the state and not to the miners. 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.920 And on top of that, uh, we also have critics 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:08.000 who say perhaps the official explanation isn't entirely true, that 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.600 that perhaps one of the reasons why China has been 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.360 cutting back on the exportation of rare earth elements is 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.679 really so that it can entice more companies to come 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.600 over to China because if it's not you know, if 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.719 the companies come over and build production facilities, then the 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.959 rare earth elements don't have to be exported. They stay 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.160 within China until they're in the finished product, which then 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.600 gets shipped out. So there's been a lot of political 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.960 maneuvers on both sides, and I don't know that anyone 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.400 is completely you know, all the cards are on the 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.480 table on this issue. So it's complicated and it's messy. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.400 And so we were starting to see some rare earth 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.319 elements start to get a little less expensive to produce 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.880 in other places, so it may turn out that that, uh, 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.840 it gets balanced in some other way. Um, we have 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.640 seen people stop demanding their electronics, so we still kind 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.400 of need these things. And it is one of those 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.040 little black marks against not a little black market, is 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.120 a black mark against renewable energy, just because we have 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.000 to have these these components to make the stuff to 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.840 get that renewable energy, that that clean electricity that we want, 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.760 right and when that clean electricity is also causing you know, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:28.239 like sulfuric acid vapor in the local air and radioactive 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.920 thorium in the water. Yes, we we should all be 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.120 concerned about that. Now that all being said, you know, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.040 these are things that we can address. These are things 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.880 that we can look to and and make changes and 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.840 make sure that we're getting these rare earth elements in 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:48.920 a responsible way that isn't environmentally damaging or or hurting populations. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.640 We can do that. That's completely something that's within our control, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.520 once the people who are in charge of it decide 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.000 that's something to do. So I'm optimistic that we're going 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.440 to get past this current state of affairs and move 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:06.840 toward a more responsible way of producing these rare earth elements. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.760 So that part, even though it's currently a negative, I 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:16.600 think will eventually, given the right the right motivation, go away. 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:18.920 So that's that's one negative that we can say, all right, 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.200 this is something we can fix, right, this is something 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.720 we can take care of. There are other ones that 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:25.679 we can't, like the whole idea when the sun is 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.040 not out, you're not generating electricity. We can't really fix that. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.480 You know, it's not like unless we are actually putting 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.240 solar panels outside the stratosphere, but then we're not really 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.440 using it for vehicles anymore. So unless you're beaming it 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.080 to the vehicles. More non existent technology, you can be 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.600 beaming it to the power grid and then the vehicles 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.320 plug into the power grid and the electric vehicles take 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.679 you where you need to go. Well, yeah, it's all so. 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.360 There's also the idea of power density on these solar vehicles, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.439 the idea of you need to have enough panels there 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.960 to generate the electricity you need to do whatever it 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.600 is those those panels are meant to do. So let's 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.720 say we've got a pure solar powered car. There's no 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.640 real battery that like, if there's there's maybe a battery 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.680 there to run some auxiliary systems, but the main drive 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.320 here is just from solar power. You would have to 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.800 have lots of panels coding the exterior of this car, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.920 and it might not look too car like. Yeah, well 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.440 you need to think about there are some really kind 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.880 of basic practical limitations you have when you're designing a car. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.280 One of the things is you can't give it like 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.559 a five hundred meter square flat area on the top. 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.440 You know, it needs to fit in a lane and 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:45.640 drive on the road, assuming that you're ever going to 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.679 make this street legal. Yet, a lot of a lot 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.240 of the cars we're going to talk about are not 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.679 necessarily street legal. It's more a kind of a concept 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.959 car in a way. They work, but they're not meant 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.240 to be, you know, driving there right next to other vehicles. Right. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.480 But then also you have those same concerns cutting into 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.280 things that are going to matter for any car that 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.679 needs to go, like weight and aerodynamic stability. If you've 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.800 got huge flat surfaces on the car that are supposed 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.200 to be facing the sun at all times for you know, 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.240 the maximum absorption of the solar energy, that's probably going 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.360 to cut into your car's aerodynamic design. Yeah, usually you 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:27.120 see these kind of almost wing like vehicles. There are 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.080 some that are more curvy and they look kind of 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.400 like airplanes on the ground. There are a lot that 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.640 look like that, particularly the ones that are meant for racing. 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.800 You also start having to worry about heat sync. I mean, 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.280 because the purpose of these things is too is to 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.640 draw in heat energy from the sun, and if you're 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.120 using that to carry something that people are are sitting in, 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.880 it gets a little toasting. It can get toasting. I 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.360 would imagine also if you were trying to make this 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.640 available to the consumer and attractive in a commercial marketplace, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.440 safety might be a concern because if you're you're trying 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.960 to design a car that would be powered by solar panels, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.520 it needs to be very very light. And when you 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.600 design a car that's that light, people start having concerns 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.240 about how does it stand up on impact well, and 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:14.920 and to be fair, I mean you might as well 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.120 go ahead and get this out of the way. Solar 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.280 powered vehicles are not going to be something that's in 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.480 the consumer realm. That's it's not meant to be in 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.040 the consumer realm. But they have an important place and 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.000 we'll discuss that, but certainly not any time in the 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.920 very near future. Yeah, I can't. I mean, they might 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.320 play a role like you might have a Toyota has 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.120 priuses that have solar panels that allow you to help 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.320 power some of the auxiliary systems not necessary and help 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.600 recharge the battery as well. It also powers a little 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.160 fan to help ventilate. Yeah, so it doesn't so you 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.440 don't end up with a car that's a million degrees 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.080 when you try and get inside, which in Atlanta, trust me, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:16:00.160 it happens. So Um, you know, there aren't consumer or 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.440 versions out there, but it's not meant as like a 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.600 fully solar powered vehicle that that I don't think we're 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.960 going to see just because of the limitations we've talked about. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:10.760 But it doesn't mean that it's not important and that 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.000 it won't help in the long run, for it has 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.000 a concept out. But I'll talk about that a little 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.600 bit later on down the line. So let's let's go 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.320 on to some of these solar vehicles. I mean, they 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.800 all One other drawback I guess I should say is 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.000 that solar panels are expensive. And so these these vehicles 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.320 that we've been looking at, most of them are in 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.520 this sort of concept prototype phase. They're meant to be 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.000 a proof of concept, not something that's going to hit 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.040 the consumer market. And so they also tend to be 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.880 incredibly expensive because they're they're using some cutting edge technology 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.040 and and customized engineering for them to work. So first 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.760 we're gonna talk about some solar cars. So, like we said, 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.600 these tend to be made out of very lightweight materials 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.920 like fiberglass. Uh, pretty much anything that isn't necessary to 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.880 who make the car go is not going to be 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.680 on that car. Right. The kind of testing, racing concept 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.560 sort of things are usually single passenger vehicles. Yeah, there's 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.600 one challenge that I read about where it's for to 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.040 two person vehicles. But for the most part there are 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.040 and that was meant to show us a practicality, like 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.479 the idea of how practical can you make a solar vehicle? 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.879 But for for the lighter your people. When you have 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.080 to ask someone like what do you have for lunch today? 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:32.480 Because I don't know if we can make it to 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.400 work or not. That's that's that's rough. But um these 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.560 have been around for a few decades though. Back in 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.160 the late seventies and early eighties, a few private citizens 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.360 began building their own experimental vehicles. I mean, I mean 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.639 single issue clearly never meant for the market or anything 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.560 like that or even for this kind of experimental run. UM. 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.000 And then on the commercial end, like we were kind 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.520 of saying a minute ago, there there are some concessions 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.280 to solar energy that are on the market. Indeed, UM 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.160 UH Toyota has has those those optional panels on its Prius, 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.720 Mazda has a couple of things Cadillacs Provocation Nissan's Leaf 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.840 both use UM panels to power its cabin electronics and 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.040 UH and and then like I was saying at four 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.200 debut a concept car with a UM kind of lens, 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.520 like like a lens canopy on top of it that 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.640 says could enable the vehicle to fully charge its batteries 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.240 on a single day of sunlight. Um, that's pretty incredible. 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.920 And I mean, I mean the car itself currently runs 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:35.159 something like thirty three thirty five thousand dollars and they 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.680 have not put a price tag on this crazy lens 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.280 idea there's yet. But I sit there, I think about, like, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.119 I've got a backpack sitting in the office right now 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.400 that has a cellar panel on it, and it has 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.520 a battery pack inside it, and it's meant to help 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.959 you charge your your portable electronics when you're out and about. Right. Uh, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.280 If I want to charge that battery pack, which can 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:02.320 give me maybe ARGE on a phone, uh, it takes 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:07.000 twelve hours of constant exposure to sunlight for me to 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.720 get that that battery pack recharged. Your backpack may not 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.400 be cutting edge, no, I know, I know, but I'm 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.440 saying that it is incredible to me. Therefore, that a 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.280 car would be able to potentially recharge its entire battery 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:22.359 within the course of a single day in sunlight that 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.359 is such a huge leap, it's totally understand Yes, So 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.520 then I wanted to talk about the World Solar Challenge. 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.760 So it's a quote unquote friendly competition between engineering teams. Yeah, 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.960 I'm sure there's a lot like those solar challenges where 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.719 people show up with knives and broken bottles. I'm sure 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.160 some trash talking though that goes on and these things, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.320 although maybe people don't necessarily understand each other because the 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:49.880 teams do come from all over the world. They meet 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.879 in Australia and the two thousand thirteen course was a 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.800 three thousand kilometer course that's about one eight hundred sixty 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.639 four miles and it stretched from r When, Australia to Adelaide, 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.600 and the cars were allowed to store only five kilowatt 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.159 hours of energy, which is about ten percent of all 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.480 the energy needed to move the car. Now, when you 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.080 say store, does that mean they were only able to 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.880 arrive with that much in their batteries or could only 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.240 store that much total? That that's all they could store 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.760 total in the caacity. Yeah, the battery capacity, who's only 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:27.000 five hours? Because anything beyond that was considered to be cheating, 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.520 like you had to have the main part of your 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.639 power needed to come from direct solar energy, although you 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.320 could also recapture any kinetic energy like you know, have 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.320 regenerative breaking, that kind of stuff. You could use that 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.359 to help recharge the battery or or otherwise, you know, 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.719 use kinetic energy to help your car go. And UH. 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.399 They they had several different types of challenges. There was 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.600 the the Challenger class, the Cruiser class, and the Adventure class. UH. 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:55.760 The Challenger class was my was the one that was 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.679 my favorite. It was it involved the teams getting out, 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.200 getting into their cars and then driving from uh, you know, 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.840 from Darwin to Adelaide and every day at five pm 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.560 they had to stop. They were required by the rules 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.120 to stop at five pm wherever they were and camp 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.840 out overnight and then the next day, uh they would 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:18.440 be allowed to continue the race. So it was one 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.439 where you know, you couldn't just rely on your battery 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.600 to get you a little extra You had to stop 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.600 when everybody else did. And it that to me, it 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.160 was pretty phenomenal. The the the winner was a team 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.920 from the Netherlands, the Solar Car Team, the new On 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:39.000 Solar Car Team. They made the trip in thirty three hours, 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.639 three minutes their average speed was ninety point seven one 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.440 kilometers per hour or fifty six miles per hour. So 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.720 these are not these are race cars for solar races, 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.840 but they're not necessarily hitting blinding speeds. Although I should 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.000 also add that at least when they first did this race, 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.800 one of the limitations was the hundred and ten kilometer 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.000 per hour speed him that Australia had and they couldn't. 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:05.480 The teams were like, we we could make something that's 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:09.480 faster than that, but we're not allowed to. So but yeah, 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:11.600