SCIENCE
Solar-powered car makes stop here
In 14 months, Louis Palmer has driven his homemade car 27,500 miles through 28 countries without putting a cent in the tank.
In fact, the low-slung blue-and-white two-seater, which resembles the fuselage of a small airplane more than a conventional automobile, has no fuel tank.
That’s the point of Palmer’s globe-girdling journey. The Swiss schoolteacher is using solar power to show that humanity could accelerate into the future without burning fossil fuels and put the brakes on global warming at the same time.
“I’m on a mission,” the tall, bearded driver said Saturday during a brief stop outside Dunn Tire Park, where more energy was being used to deep-fry chicken wings for the two-day National Buffalo Wing Festival than Palmer and his support team have consumed since leaving Zurich.
Sponsored by Q-Cells, a German solar cell manufacturer, the Solar Taxi carries two large batteries capable of propelling it 200 miles on a single charge — 60 miles farther on a sunny day like the one Buffalo served up with its wings. It pulls a two-wheel trailer holding rows of flat solar panels that replenish the batteries.
If he knew of enough places to plug in his batteries along the way, the panels wouldn’t even be needed, Palmer pointed out.
Except for a cracked frame and a flat tire or two that have cost a total of two days’ time, there have been no breakdowns.
“The technology works. It’s reliable, affordable and ready,” Palmer said. He reckons vehicles like his could be mass-produced for about $10,000 apiece.
He first dreamed of making this trip at age 14, in 1986. He thought electric cars surely would be in production by now. But none are, so he built his own with help from four Swiss universities.
The idealist from the Alps is pragmatic enough to know that it will take a geopolitical sea change to break the world’s addiction to oil and choose alternative energy sources. And he knows that the nation he is currently visiting is perhaps the least likely to lead such a reform, despite record-high gasoline prices.
“In many countries, I see the will to change,” he said. “Not in the U. S.”
Palmer would just as soon leave the political challenge to others. “I’d rather focus on inspiring millions of people to accept this technology,” he said.
The solar vehicle set out for Washington, D. C., after stopping here, and will visit New York City, Boston and Montreal before hopping the Atlantic to Africa. Palmer hopes to be home for Christmas.
