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Solar Vehicles Working on Solar Power

It has been an engineering goal since 1980s to develop a car powered by solar power. The solar challenge of the world is a biannual solar power car race in which several universities and enterprises take part. When it was judged that the winner's average speed of car was 67 kilometers per hour which increased to 90.87 kilometers per hour, it was decided by the concerned countries to make the most competitive car which runs by solar power. They tried to achieve special engineering and development designs for it. Solar panels are used by some vehicles for auxiliary power which is required for air conditioning in order to keep the interiors cool as well as reduce the consumption of fuel.

The first solar boat running on solar power was constructed in 1975 in England. Other passenger boats were also created with the help of photovoltaic panels. Such boats started being manufactured more commonly and appeared extensively later. The solar flight working on solar power was made in 1974. It was a fully controlled and man carrying flying machine which reached at an altitude of an amazing 40 meters. In 1980, many other piloted flights were made which had photovoltaic powering them along with the solar power. Other planes were also developed in the later years. Some of them were absolutely unmanned while the others were piloted. However, they had an amazing designing and unbelievable machinery which worked or ran on solar power and also photovoltaics. Aircrafts were also built with the best techniques and amazing designs and technology. Out of all the planes developed and working on solar power, the Zephyr is the latest one. It is an aircraft which has broken all the records and runs on solar power. It had made a flight of the duration of fifty four hours which is very long in fact the longest time covered by any aircraft running on solar energy. There are month long flights being expected in 2010 and all the possible efforts are being made to accomplish this goal.

A solar balloon is a balloon which is filled with normal or ordinary air. The air inside the balloon heats up as the sunlight falls on it. This results in an expansion which leads to an upward buoyance effect. It seems to work like an artificially inflated balloon. Some solar balloons are big enough for carrying human beings but their usage is dependent on the toy market as area of the surface to the ratio of the payload and weight is considerably high.

Solar sails are like a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion. They use large membrane mirrors for exploiting the radiation pressure that comes from the Sun. Unlike the rockets, solar sails don't require any fuel. Although the thrust is small as compared to the rockets yet, it continues for as long as the Sun is shining onto the deployed sail. Significant speeds can eventually be achieved in the vacuum of spaces.

A high altitude air ship is the one that uses solar power and is unmanned runs for long duration, lighter than those which use helium gas for lifting and run on solar cells with thin film. Other vehicles are also in the process of being designed which will be made to run on solar power.

 

About the Author

Jeena Gill is an author of spheralsolar.com, One of the best Solar Panels & Home Power Kits company. He has been writing on solar powers for a many years.

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