In the past twelve months or more we have commented on a variety of new innovations involving solar panels. These have included such things as solar panel battery charging stations for electric cars, solar panels being used by one of the UK’s ambulance services to provide additional power, solar panels on someone’s shed, back-packs with solar panels on them enabling a walker to re-charge their mobile phone and the possibility of the US army providing their front-line troops with uniforms that have solar panels sewn into them.
Car manufacturers are frequently looking for ways to out-do their competitors and there are fewer better-known car manufacturers than Ford. Of course, in recent years, electric cars have come to market and, although costing several thousand pounds more than a conventional powered vehicle, they are being seen on roads around the world in much larger numbers.
Apparently, Ford has released plans in respect of the Ford C-Max Solar Energi Concept car. This vehicle is equipped with a roof-based solar panel system and a Fresnel lens making the car capable of running on electricity for 21 miles from being fully charged by the sunlight. It is claimed that the amount of sunlight produced in one day that can be used by the new system will provide the same level of electricity as one of Ford’s normal hybrid cars that is plugged into a charger. This would give it a range of up to 620 miles that is excellent.
The vehicle will still be able to be charged up in the normal way but this new system will obviously provide Ford’s new concept car with greater flexibility in terms of not having to rely as much on making sure that a charging station is within reasonable distance when making longer journeys.
As always, we welcome any comments from our many readers so feel free to make your feelings known.
