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March 8, 2007 Tapping the sun to power first eco-friendly car in UAE Staff Reporter, Gulf News
Dubai: The first solar powered car designed and created by an Emirati is currently on display in Dubai and has been drawing crowds intrigued by its sleek flat shape.
A solar powered car created by a UAE national is on display at the Emirates Towers Boulevard.
The car will be displayed at the Emirates Towers Boulevard today and will later be moved to Wafi City mall. "I would really like to drive it to Wafi on Shaikh Zayed Road but I don't know if this will be possible because police will have to stop the traffic, it only goes at 45km/h," said Bin Saif. Whipping out his mobile phone and activating a video, the car can be seen moving steadily down a residential street - proof that the invention works. The car took three months to build and before that spent four months on the drawing board being refined. "It has four solar panels of 170 watt and two batteries which store the energy. It is ready to go now with the energy stored inside and doesn't need to sit in the sun all day," said Bin Saif. The car is 6 metres in length and 2 metres wide. It has room for a driver and a passenger and the seats are reclined offering a comfortable drive. There is no air conditioning, "like a Formula 1 car," Bin Saif added."I will be working on a new car which will be smaller and faster," he said. The venture is a first for UAE and not a business venture so the car has no price tag, said Bin Saif although he does see solar powered cars as a part of the future. How does it work? The sun provides over 1,000 watts per sq m of energy. The solar cells on the car collect energy from the sun. Electrons in the cells are extracted by the sun’s energy and passed into the car through the solar cells' metallic connectors. In order for the car to use more energy than it gets from the sun at any moment, batteries are used to store extra electrical energy. History The first person to construct a solar car was Alan Freeman of Rugby in England in 1979. A decade later, solar powered cars were being raced across 3,000km powered only by the sun in the World Solar Challenge, launched in 1987 in Australia. Today solar cars can reach speeds up to 130km/h. |
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