On 5/5/21 1:20 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Tue, 04 May 2021 19:29:42 -0700, Guy Acheson wrote:

Same with cars. Solar panels covering the surface will recharge the
batteries continuously for free.

Sure have - but lightweight, single seat vehicled with large, flat top
surfaces covered with solar cells. Specially designed to race across
Australia.

Airplanes have already demonstrated powered flight with all power coming
from solar panels.

Yep, and one even flew round the world on solar power. But lets not
forget that it was huge, a single seater, flew at 35-40 kts and took
weeks to finish the journey.


You're speaking of the Solar Impulse 2? Took a year and a half, a large
support team of meteorologists, a cargo plane following them carrying a
huge inflatable hangar, and lots of supplies. They fried their
batteries and had to replace in the field.

A noble experiment, proved it could be done, but also proved it's a hell
of a long ways from being practical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qbROmxxIOU