Solar-powered cars all get their fuel from the same place - the Sun. The cars use hundreds of photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity. Each cell produces about one-half volt of electricity.

If you're going environmental, why not go all the way? Why not put photovoltaic cells on the roof of the car and let it charge off the sun? Well solar cells are not practical on the car. Too often we park in garages, under trees, carports or other places where solar cells wouldn't work. And the cells generate power slowly, so much so that it's not feasible to run the car off the small amount of surface area it offers.

A Solar car made by the South Australian Solar Car Consortium (whew)

So, if you can't bring the sun to the car, bring the car to the sun! Put Solar Cells at the charging stations!

A Photovoltaic Electric Vehicle Charging Station -- Santa Monica Civic Center, Santa Monica, CA.

This is the solar array at the Santa Monica, CA Civic Center. Here, an array of Photovoltaic Cells get a constant bath of sunshine just a half mile from the beach. The electricity generated by the cells fuels the electric car chargers below.

This array can charge up to seven electric vehicles simultaneously. It has two inductive Magna-chargers, three 110v outlets, and four 220v conductive outlets. Any excess energy generated by the cells is fed into City Hall Building. At night, the electric vehicles may be charged using off-peak utility power.

San Diego County Administration Bldg Solar Charging Facility 

"During the 30 year life of this station 120,000 kw of solar electricity will be generated. 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of gasoline will be saved. 113,000 pounds of coal or 1,200,000 cu feet of natural gas would have been required by the utility company to produce the same electricity." The Santa Monica Pier has also recently added a Solar Powered Ferris Wheel!

The Sun's energy powers the car's motor and charges a battery for use when the Sun is hidden by a cloud. If a car is designed to put all of its energy toward driving and keeps nothing in reserve, it will stop completely in cloudy weather. If too much energy is diverted to the battery, the engine runs too slowly to keep up in the race.

Engineers and scientists still have many questions and problems to tackle before solar power becomes an efficient and economical way to fuel vehicles. But as the demand on fossil fuel resources increases, research will continue to search for alternative energy sources, including harnessing the Sun's energy to drive a vehicle. The most exciting part of using solar power as an energy source is that it is pollution free and inexhaustible. If research continues, one day solar energy may replace today's combustion engine cars!