Very interesting.

Wonder how wll this would work with a plug in Hybrid?

Jake, I agree it needs to be cheaper.

But I also pose this question in response.

How long will it take for someones $2000 leather seats to pay them back?

And the answer is never, This is an upgrade option for someone who wants to make a statement about how we can use less foriegn oil and produce less emissions. It is definetly not currently for someone who only wants to save a little money. But... If the government added some tax incentives it would help.

It would be interesting to calculate the saving of energy of these PV units verses the energy required to make and install them.

I strongly agree with Paul in regard to 'payback'. When someone buys $200 shoes, or extra-special car tire rims, or a fancy coat, or installs a pool in the backyard, there is never talk of 'payback'. But if someone actually wants to do something positive for the planet it somehow has have 'payback' and be worth it.

Nothing at all against you Jake, most people ask this question when it comes to energy use -- it would just be great if we got away from looking at the conservation of energy that way.

One must start somewhere and one must start now. While it is difficult to find many PV applications that show a reasonable payback period, we can't wait around until the perfect and cheap technology is here. The pioneers will help us reach the critical mass in technology and volume whereby PV will be economically viable. If the alternative is an unacceptable level of fossil fuel consumption, we must embark on many of these projects as a matter of faith.

We cannot be sure if a solar future is viable, but we will never know unless we start now. In any event, the payback will be greater than, say, the billions we've pissed away on the Iraq war. At least solar doesn't have a negative payback.

So if I could put up with an extra 2 watts I can get a $1870 rebate. Let's see, that would buy almost 900 gallons of gas these days. Well atleast some dealer can make a couple of Hummer payments with that money.

http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/product_details.asp?ProductID=15674&cat=Solar%20Energy&subcat=Solar%20Battery%20Chargers

Just a few observations/comments:

Konarka, and other companies who are producing the same technology (whose names elude me right now), are making flexible, ultra thin solar panels, primarily for the U.S. military at first, but also for consumer use ultimately. These companies boast much cheaper production costs (therefore cheaper consumer costs--we'll see if this actually happens) because they don't need to expend the huge amounts of energy to super heat silicone in the same way as rigid silicon cells need to be heated, as the PV cells/material with Konarka can be "painted" or applied to plastic, cloth or other flexible or solid surfaces. It probably won't be too long (a couple years?) until you can buy these types of flexible solar sheets yourself and stick them on the roof of your car/van.

You'd have to be a die-hard to want to paint the roof of your new hybrid this way, but I think I could live with the looks. It could be the new "carbon-fibre" look for exotic hybrids.

It also looks like half the roof is still not covered by solar cells in the picture: that's kind of weak considering it costs over 2 big ones! I would think in a couple years for sure you could fabricate a system something like this yourself for much cheaper.

Some people think this small wattage won't do anything, but remember the biggest fuel savings are to be had when the motor helps start the car off from a stop: once it's rolling the drain on the battery is much less of course. If this small system helps to just "top off" the battery enough to get even a few more starts from red lights, you can indeed expect to see small gains in fuel efficiency. Let's run with it!

Bah, added weight, reduced aerodynamics,.. And how much energy was expended making the panel in the first place? Did they use safe environmental practices in manufacture? Well if we're being all environmental about this might as well go all the way.

Wouldn't the whole concept be more practical if the solar panel was on the roof of your garrage to assist charging when you come home from work? Then the panel could afford to be big and cumbersome but very efficient, powerful and possibly much much cheaper?
Not to mention a static panel could be positioned to get maximum sun at various times of the day, which can't be said for the on-car one, especially if you park it under a tree or any shady spot. I don't know about you, but parking a new expensive car in full sun does not sound too appealing. Especially when you get into it at the end of the day and stew for a while until the damned aircon can cool the cabin (which by the way is a huge waste of energy)

Users in more sunny areas aren't likely to see much more difference... Because it isn't charging the drive battery it is charging the 12v auxillary system... ie: the radio, vent fans, cooling fans for battery pack, cigarette lighter, etc.

But the above statement that it can't effect fuel milage is wrong. Hybrids d what many call "hidden charging" That is, they use the main generator to create electricity to charge the 12v system, this is an increased load... reducing this load gives a noticable gain.

If you don't belive that, check out some of the high-end drag cars that run with no altenator because that pulls too much HP away from the motor. (Even with 3000hp+)

This is a great idea; Many on hybrid forums have bee discussing this, and doing this mod on thier own for a long time now. It's already proven to work, the only question is whether the cost is too much :)

I agree, this setup is way too expensive for the nominal recoup of the investment. This is not a status item that we should just buy, as are a nice pair of shoes. And last I checked my shoes get better milege than that car anyway. afterall, we all have expenses to contend with in the rest of our lives. And those mocking us out there that we should do it for the environment, put up the money for us or shut up. I'm sure that there are other companies offering a cheaper setup that would love to help you apply thin film cells on your car, what you aren't paying of is the marketing. THis company is just an opportunist at heart. All in the name of money.

I agree that it's too $ ... but it's not for the purpose of driving the car. the ONLY thing it dos is store power so that the AUXIALLRY electric devices can be run off solar power.

It would be the same idea as removing a car's altenator and using solar instead.

Keep in mind that the Prius' alternator equivalent (DC-DC converter) can deliver 1000 watts to the 12v system, and when "on" there's probably an average of 300 watts of electric equipment in use. 30 watts of peak solar power (unlikely to deliver 30 watts very often) mitigates very little energy consumption, I seriously doubt it will be noticeable since I have seen NO drop in fuel consumption after installing two medium-size audio amplifiers with speakers and a PC with touchscreen in a Prius. Until independent study can confirm any of their claims I would remain extremely skeptical about this particular offering.

The idea has merit, the Prius I with ~300 watts of panels plugged into the HV system improved fuel consumption by .5 MPG in Canada. That seems more realistic and technically useful in terms of power offsetting anything significant.