Scientists in Australia are testing printed solar panels they will use to power a Tesla on a 15,100-km (9,400-mile) journey beginning in September, which they anticipate will get the public thinking about steps to help avert climate change.
The Charge Around Australia project will power a Tesla electric car with 18 of the team’s printed plastic solar panels, each 18 metres (59 feet) long, rolling them out beside the vehicle to soak up sunlight when it needs a charge.
Paul Dastoor, the inventor of the printed solar panels, said the University of Newcastle team would be testing not only the endurance of the panels but also their potential performance for other applications.
“This is actually an ideal test bed to give user information about how we would go about using and powering technology in other remote locations, for example, in space,” Dastoor told Reuters in the town of Gosforth, north of Sydney.”
Printed solar is a lightweight, laminated PET plastic that can be made at a cost of less than $10 (roughly Rs. 764) a square metre.
The panels are made on a commercial printer originally used for printing wine labels.
Dastoor said using the panels to power a car would get Australians to think more about electric vehicles and could help ease their “range anxiety”.
“(The) community is seeking these sorts of answers to the problems it’s being presented with, day in, day out, around climate change,” he said.
