Solar Powered Car Makes First Ever Around-the-World Trip

by josiemitchell | December 4, 2008 at 11:29 am

483 views | 15 Recommendations | 8 comments

In Ponzan, Poland, a solar powered car rolled up at the U.N. Climate Talks to demonstrate that emissions could not only be cut by a fraction, but could be cut completely. This was the first time that a solar powered car made a complete trip around the world.

The small two-seater, hauling a trailer of solar cells and carrying chief U.N. climate official Yvo de Boer, glided up to a building in Poznan, Poland, where delegates from some 190 nations are working toward a new treaty to control climate change.

"This is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has traveled all the way around the world without using a single drop of petrol," said Louis Palmer, the 36-year-old Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who made the trip.

"These new technologies are ready," he said. "It's ecological, it's economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warning."
Palmer's appearance at the conference marked the end of a 32,000-mile journey that began 17 months ago in Lucerne, Switzerland, and took him through 38 countries.

The car itself is even said to run quite well.

The car, which runs noiselessly, can travel up to 55 mph and covers 185 miles on a fully charged battery.

Palmer said he lost only two days to breakdowns during the journey.

"This car runs like a Swiss clock," he said.

Passengers have included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Delegates in Poznan are seeking an ambitious new climate treaty that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and has required that 37 countries slash emissions of heat-trapping gases by an average 5 percent from 1990 levels.

The goal is for the new treaty to be finalized at the next U.N. climate meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Well lets hope the Technology will be perfected and made affordable as well.

Nice, but we knew that for a long time:

http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=2255

Our country is in deep economical trouble and it just amazes me how little credit has been given to the high cost of fuel this past year. That one single factor alone has been solely responsible for putting more businesses out of business and more homeowners out of their home than any other factor. The historically high cost of gas affects every single aspect of our economy and society. Most family's went broke filling up at the pump alone. Then added to the burden was the higher cost of every consumer product because the increased production and shipping cost due to the higher fuel was passed on to the consumer. Let me ask you this, have you seen the price of groceries come down since the price of gas came back down. NOOO! Freddie and Fannie are taking most of the blame for homes being lost. Of all the homes I have seen lost in my area of the country S FL and I have seen many and many more in the process, not one was due to an adjustable rate mortgage. It was due to lack of work. When we pay more for gas and products we naturally cut back spending, that is a domino effect, less consumer spending = more jobs lost. We seriously need to get on about the business of becoming energy independent. Jeff Wilson just released a book called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW. He outlines all our uses of oil, things I never even considered. Our depletion, which is even scarier, this is a finite source of energy. It will run totally out and not in the too distant future. We have so much available to us, wind and solar which are free, we just need to harness them. And plug in car technology. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to charge an electric car with the average home electric rates. That is insanely cheap. That electricity to charge the car could be generated from wind or solar. A company called Better Place in Palo Alto CA is in the beginning stages of setting up the infrastructures needed to support electric car use in the bay area in CA and now in Hawaii. WE need to take some of these billions and get ourselves out from under our dependence on foreign countries supplying our main source of energy. I encourage you to read this book http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com. I also have quickly become a "Better Place" junkie and applauded their work as they move our country forward and away from our dependence on foreign oil. Check out their web site as well. http://www.betterplace.com/ click on their get involved button on the top right side of the main page. You can sign a petition there. WE have to move this country forward. Use some of that stimulus money to bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil. Create badly needed new green collar jobs and at the same time provide clean , cheap energy. There is no one single factor that effects our economy more than the cost of our main source of energy. This past year is a testimony to that!

This solar taxi make me inspiring.i'm student of manufacturing and design seen this solar taxi can become new era technology and help the world.

krulz has contributed a photo to this story.

didn't use a drop of gas? How much electricity did he need to supplement the solar charging?

It is a good question Rene, however they did not have to supplement it nor could they since the goal was to make on Solar Power alone and those where also the given conditions.

it's quite fascinating that people find this stuff really attractive and nice to drive. btw, on the other side it seems so much heavy than I thought...coz it was just a two-seater car with a huge body.