4/20    Why doesn't someone stick solar cells on hybrid cars?
        \_ I don't think hybrids have such big batteries...  Why add
           an expensive array of solar cells when the gas engine
           charges the batteries just fine?
           \_ Plus it adds weight, and maybe distorts the car's aerodynamic
              shape which increases drag.
        \_ Photovoltaic cells don't generate very much. The surface area of a
           hybrid might provide enough to run the CD player on a sunny day.
        \_ A house-sized system can generate a few kW on a good day.  A single
           horsepower is about 0.75kW.
           \_ You mean a few kWH on a good day? I was producing over 10 KWH
              a day with just a 3.3KW system, and my dad has a 6KW system on
              his house that produces I think approx 20 KwH per day ... He
              pays zero per year for his electricity, only a small bit for
              being connected to the grid.  But for a car it wou'dn't work,
              ordinary gasoline cars need almost an order of magnitude more
              power than a house.  This is why oil is so nice and why
              substitutes are hard without drastically cutting down the power
              requirements.
              \_ How much do the 3.3kW and the 6kW systems cost?
                 \_ I'm putting in a 3.3kW system; after rebates, it
                    comes out to about $18K.  -tom
              \_ No, I mean a few kW will be generated on a good day.  If you
                 generated 10kWH in say 8 hours of usable sun that means you
                 only averaged 1.25kW.  If you were generating the full 3.3kW
                 for 8 hours you would have generated 26.4kWH.  I talked about
                 kW, not kWH because kW, like hp is a unit of power, and is
                 applicable to the way people think about cars.
        \_ because the drag and weight of the solar sells wouldn't make up for
           the energy the generate?  Not to mention the weight.
           Besides, hybrid cars aren't about electric power, they're about
           'more efficient' gas power.   It's silly to think of them as some
           some panacea for energy savings and the environment, because
           ultimately they're still just burning gasoline.