IVy League of Champions

Yes, a number 4 Finish but a winner in so many other ways! While this is belated praise following the World Solar Challenge (due to me wrangling over steering rack issues in my car), I thought it worth mentioning seeing as they made an appearance in the December 09 issue of Silicon Chip magazine. Tokai Challenger was the overall winner, finishing almost a day in front of the rest, but the IVy result was a darn good one considering the much talk-about competition from the Brits were left way behind, along with other competitors.

Silicon Chip magazine has all the details, or see an excerpt here:
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/A_111771/cms/article.html

Well done team!

The IVy uses home brew A300 silicon cells with significant improvements over other silicon cells. There’s plenty of solar cell improvements happening out there, spurned on by a need for better efficiency and by the rising costs of silicon cells (we know silicon’s cheap and abundant, but global increased demand for the stuff is affecting panel prices). One improvement is to slice the silicon into strip wafers and separate them, i.e., use less silicon on the same surface area, spaced apart instead of covering the entire panel. Use of a polymer overlay is then applied in such a way to scatter/spread the light across the silicon strips resulting in marginally-reduced efficiency but for far less silicon cost.

So much of the broad technology used in the IVy and others will find its way into regular electric cars for supplemental charging, instrument management etc, helping to get more EVs out there for Joe Public, and the quicker the better. While politicians pander to each other and juggle short-term monetary gain verses the future, time is running out.

The other day someone mentioned an old Spielberg movie which showed that there won’t be any humans alive on the planet in two thousand years. Yes, well one doesn’t need a scientist to know that our future is dire if nothing is done. The near-sightedness of some politicians needs to be stretched a little outwards right now, to avoid the frightening far-sighted possibilities.

Meanwhile, the opposition party haggle over emissions trading with a large proportion still disbelieving in a global greenhouse impact, while the government try to push a watered-down carbon trading scheme that’ll cost the public while paying gas and coal giants millions. Thanks to smhblogs for this one…

Coal and Gas Opposition Leader Tony Abbot sssspeaks...

Other Stuff

Some other links worth noting; my good friend buddy pal man extraordinaire superperson who wears his metalizer underwear on the outside has been getting some more publicity for the ev cause. Check it out here: http://www.evcapri.com/

Also, a link to yet another ev auto site: http://www.evcarco.com/

Oh, and something else I was toying with but decided not to as someone else was doing it anyway (and had better resources):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/16/electric-cars-halosonic