Solar panels in gasoline car

We all know that an alternator in a car uses a significant portion of a car's HP, thus lots of its fuel efficiency. Thus in theory, if a large enough solar panel (lets say 150 watts) wouldn't this decrease the load on the alternator this increasing HP/fuel efficiency?

This is more or less to satisfy curiosity, I don't intend to try it.

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dougw over 6 years ago +7

Solar panels could help reduce fuel consumption and it is even possible to run vehicles solely on solar power. It is mainly a question of how much to spend versus how much is the benefit, including factors…
14rhb over 6 years ago +6

Hi Peter, A very good suggestion which has got me thinking early on a Sunday morning. I don't know what a typical alternator loads an engine by but it goes from a large amount (that you wish to reduce…
Pavel.Simon over 6 years ago +4

Interesting idea, but. One things is produce additional electricity with solar panels, whatever during drive or during car waiting somewhere. But for reducing looses on alternator, you would need think…

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pmfman over 6 years ago

So essentially it isnt practical on a car unless the size of solar panels reduces or unless the entire horizontal surface of the car is solar panels
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dougw over 6 years ago in reply to pmfman

If you could use solar power to reduce fuel costs by 0.5% and a solar panel lasts 3 years, to make it cost effective, the cost of your solar panel should be less than 0.5% of your fuel costs over 3 years.
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dougw over 6 years ago in reply to pmfman

If you could use solar power to reduce fuel costs by 0.5% and a solar panel lasts 3 years, to make it cost effective, the cost of your solar panel should be less than 0.5% of your fuel costs over 3 years.
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pmfman over 6 years ago in reply to dougw

I thought general rule of thumb was 1% degradation per year
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dougw over 6 years ago in reply to pmfman

Good point. I was just assuming a 1 year warranty and tripling it. In an automotive environment I would expect other failure modes than just efficiency degradation. The numbers can easily be reworked to reflect any better assumptions.
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