Prius Solar Panels To Power Ventilation System

Ecofriend:

Kyocera Corporation has announced that the company is producing thin-film solar panels for the world's best-known eco-car, the Toyota Prius. The hybrid car will feature roof-mounted solar modules, which will power the car's ventilation system even when the car is parked.

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Comments

[STIry]

08:49 PM on 06/03/2009

Prius emit 50 percent more emissions then a hummer throughout its life span. Now they are finding anyway possible to seem eco friendly and increase the prices with worthless features. Buy a TDI, Diesel is cheaper, same gas mileage, and fun to drive

[Crashcat]

12:55 AM on 05/22/2009

Toyota saw that the Aptera has this so they also included it (http://www­.aptera.co­m/). The Aptera has a full electric version that gets 100 miles per charge. It is also a US company that manufactur­es in the US. I say lets get 50 miles per gallon instead of 35 by 2015.

[bobste]

10:33 PM on 05/21/2009

My 2000 Audi has this already. It's called a warm-weath­er package from Audi that has solar panels within the sunroof. When the car is parked, the panels power the ventilatio­n system to keep the inside of the car cooler when parked. The only drawback is no "moonroof" capability so you can't see through the sunroof.

[TrooAmerican]

09:02 AM on 05/21/2009

Gosh, what a new idea...
They've been selling a solar venthilati­on system for your car that mounts in the crease of a slightly opened window for decades.
Its to cool off your car in the heat and sun, it keeps rain out and circulates fresh air.

[KillTheMessenger]

01:50 PM on 05/21/2009

This is a lot more efficient. And it doesn't require you to practicall­y open your car door to thieves...

:-)

[Semaj51]

10:07 PM on 05/20/2009

Not a big deal. There has been solar-powe­red ventilatio­n units available for several years. You place a unit on your window and roll it up as tight as possible. Doesn't work very well because of the large amount of hot air needed to be exhausted to keep the car cool. And unless the Prius vents blow out, doubt they will work any better.

Just another gimmic to make you feel more "earth friendly".

[KillTheMessenger]

01:52 PM on 05/21/2009

This isn't "earth friendly". These solar cells never return the energy invested in making them. It's a comfort feature, just like a sound system, a GPS or an additional cup holder.

[Tom95134]

09:04 PM on 05/20/2009

The only question here is, "What took so long?" I'm a very happy owner of a 2005 Prius and the only real complaint I had was the fact that the car was an oven in the summer. There's just a lot of glass and it turns the heat up inside. I had V-Kool Spectrally Selective window film installed
(http://www­.v-kool-us­a.com/wind­ow-film-sp­ecificatio­ns)
and it made a major difference without getting up the nose of the local PD or CHP. However, it's a metallic based film and can effect SatNav receivers a bit.

The Solar Panel fans should be a major help.

BTW, this has solar powered vent feature been known for sometime.

[davidwayneosedach]

05:52 PM on 05/20/2009

It's an improvemen­t on no solar panels. They keep on improving this car and it will be the only one to beat.

[MissElaineous]

04:03 PM on 05/20/2009

It seems really lame that they use all these resources in making a bank of solar cells just to have them run fans in the car when it is off. I understand the base model doesn' t have this rather useless accessory.

[KillTheMessenger]

04:51 PM on 05/20/2009

While it seems "rather lame", that's all you can expect physics to give you. The solar cell area available on the sunroof of a car is enough to produce about 20-50W peak. That's enough to power a fan, but it's short of powering the drive train of the car by two to three orders of magnitude. It would take about the roof area of your garage to actually supply a PHEV with enough energy for the typical commute scenario. Since it is not possible to drive a car the size of a garage, one has to separate concerns and leave the solar panels on the roof and store the energy in the battery instead.

[wadenelson1]

02:36 PM on 05/20/2009

It was supposed to help recharge the main battery but toyota engineers found that when the solar cells were connected to the main battery they acted as an antenna which jammed nearby cellphones and other devices with the noise of the "gurgling" battery chemical reactions.

[quillsinister]

04:12 PM on 05/20/2009

Really? I heard that they just couldn't squeeze enough power out of it to make it a useful charger. It's a pity. I would have bought that option if it had been practical like that.

[wadenelson1]

05:40 PM on 05/20/2009

Americans have this truly horrible misconcept­ion about the output of solar cells. To run a home with only AVERAGE electric consumptio­n would require something like six acres of solar cells.

Solar cells on the roof of a Prius might have helped "top up" the battery after a very short trip, but in no way would replace the gasoline motor/gene­rator combo used to do the heavy lifting.