Nowadays, the state of the economy is causing a great stir. It seems there is a crisis going on. Some car manufacturers are about to go out of business because people don’t buy cars. And why don’t people buy cars?
Of course, it partly has to do with the general crisis in the economy. Yet there is another aspect, namely the global warming. Many folks hesitate to throw their money on buying a gasoline-powered vehicle.
I am sure we will soon see a breakthrough for electric cars. There is really only one weakness with electric cars: batteries haven’t been powerful enough. However, more efficient batteries are in the works. And once you get these into production, there is no reason to buy an old-fashioned gas-powered car.
By the way, the energy efficiency of an electric car is far superior to the efficiency of gas-powered vehicles. One of the reasons for this is that an electric engine works only when it really needs to. Such an engine doesn’t need an “idle”, for example.
Imagine that most cars are now running on electricity instead of gasoline. OK, you don’t need to be Einstein to realize this is going to mean a greater demand for electric energy. And I guess none of us wants to get a higher utility bill? The answer is: get independent, get solar power! Solar panels for homes are the best thing since sliced bread. Photovoltaic panels can be set up on the roof of your house.
And then your house and your vehicle are both solar-powered. There is no pollution and once the system is set up, the rest is a free ride.
You may think that this will be something very expensive to install. Well, that used to be the case but not anymore. The cost of making solar cells is going down rapidly. Everyone knows that there is a huge demand for cheap solar power products. Therefore several companies are working hard to make them.
One company, Nanosolar, has found a way to make solar panels in an assembly line process. The process is a bit like printing newspapers. A semiconducting material which looks like paint is sprayed on to a metal foil. This is a very fast and easy process once set up.
Imagine the enormous potential of using rooftops to collect solar energy!
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