Spring Break
Allow me to ZEMonstrate
Joseph Akeley
Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: News
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"It's like a four-wheel bike with a motor," said Robert Fehr, a freshman mechanical engineering major.
Creators of the car, called the ZEM, test drove the car outside the Engineering Building in front of about 20 people and a few passers-by.
"It's like a mix of the Flintstones and modernity," said Morgan Chivers, a senior history major who stopped to watch. "It's like how the Flintstones pedal, but you are using solar panels and an electric motor."
The car combines man power with solar and electrical power, said Rick Uro, a senior engineer of Design Visionaries in San Jose and a contributor to the project.
"We use pedal power to get up to about five miles per hour," Uro said. "Then we can switch to the electric power from the batteries to run the motor and you go up to 20 to 25 miles per hour and get it on cruise control."
Uro said the key to making the vehicle was the addition of four solar panels.
"There are a total of four solar panels here, and they are used in the day," said Bobby Ram, the director of global community relations at SunPower, the company that provided the solar panels. "They collect the energy from the sun and store the power generated in the batteries, and it can run off the battery power."
Joy Leighton, the director of communications and publications for the College of Engineering, said the car can go up to 35 mph, can travel 50 miles without needing to be recharged and weighs about 1,000 pounds. The sun can charge its batteries up to six hours.
Students who watched the vehicle's engineers take test drives said they were impressed that the car runs without any gas.
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Ptferrarp
Pat Ferraro
posted 12/08/08 @ 1:20 PM PST
The engineering students are on the right track, but the real solar panels belong on the building next to the parking lot, not weighing down the car. The pedal backup is a fun aspect that some people have asked about when they are riding in my GEM (one of those "golf carts, as you call them)
When you power/recharge an EV with solar, you further reduce the payback period and essentially increase the rate of return on the cost of a solar voltaic system. (Continued…)
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