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  • Stella, World's First Solar-Powered Family Car

    Smriti Jha

    Member

    Updated: Oct 22, 2024
    Views: 1.1K
    Stella, which is Latin for 'Star' is the product of The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) of TU/e in the Netherlands. Glorified as the world's first solar-powered family car, Stella is the first 'energy-positive car' roomy enough for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers. The electricity generated by the solar cells of the car are on an average more than the car requires to run. This surplus supply of electricity can then be returned to the power grid, hence justifying the car as 'energy-positive'. Meanwhile, a steering wheel that expands or contracts when you are driving too fast or too slowly, allows for the concept of intuitive driving.

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    Envisaging the car of the future, Solar Team Eindhoven has built 'Stella' by combining aerodynamic design with lightweight materials such as carbon and aluminum. Fuel-efficiency is held paramount, along with the addition of ingenious applications like a LED strip and touchscreen that is in accord with the idea of delivering a futuristic design. Once the car is officially certified for road use, it'd be proven that this indeed is a fully-fledged car.

    This car is the Student Team's official entry for the Cruiser Class, which judges on viability and user-friendliness rather than on speed, of the World Solar Challenge that starts in Australia in October 2013. University teams from all over the world will be competing in a 3,000 km long race along the Australian outback. The 'solar race' takes place from 6th to 13th of October 2013. Minor query, is that a bonnet on the interior or a really spacious dashboard?

    Source: #-Link-Snipped-#
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Jul 5, 2013

    Looks like it has about 8 to 10 square metres collector area. Even with mid day sun this cannot develop more than about 1.5 KW with current panels. Will this really be enough for a 600 km range and be power surplus?
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  • Anoop Mathew

    Member • Jul 5, 2013

    A.V.Ramani
    Looks like it has about 8 to 10 square metres collector area. Even with mid day sun this cannot develop more than about 1.5 KW with current panels. Will this really be enough for a 600 km range and be power surplus?
    They've probably developed it as a prototype for the future Mars Earthlings to use once they have comfortably settled in. ;-)
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  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    Member • Jul 5, 2013

    Could you please tell me about the speed range that can be maintained and top
    speed of
    this cuty?
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  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    Member • Jul 5, 2013

    If the sun light is less or not enough , can it maintain the same speed?
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  • Ankita Katdare

    Administrator • Jul 5, 2013

    Whoa! This world solar challenge looks like one awesome destination for engineers!
    You guys can look forward to some interesting roll outs here - #-Link-Snipped-#
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  • Anil Jain

    Member • Jul 5, 2013

    They are using only top surface for the solar panel.

    I have a noob questions, can't they use entire external surface as the solar panel probably that would conserve the more energy?

    -CB
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    Energy delivered to the panel = (Peak insolation wattage) x cos(sun's angle in sky) x cos (angle of panel to horizontal)/per square foot area.

    The two cosine terms reduce the delivered energy to a very small amount for panels on sides.
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  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    CSK AUTO
    If the sun light is less or not enough , can it maintain the same speed?
    Speed of the car is dependant on the charge stored in the battery as the battery drains of the speed decrease

    The sunlight is just used to charge the batteries and it is not directly related to the speed of the car
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  • Anil Jain

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    A.V.Ramani
    Energy delivered to the panel = (Peak insolation wattage) x cos(sun's angle in sky) x cos (angle of panel to horizontal)/per square foot area.

    The two cosine terms reduce the delivered energy to a very small amount for panels on sides.
    Agree,
    However won't it be possible to play around with the angle, I mean by tweaking the design and getting some type of reflection to get the required angle?

    -CB
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  • Phil Malone

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    A.V.Ramani
    The two cosine terms reduce the delivered energy to a very small amount for panels on sides.
    Look at the tree shadows. Looks to me that the left side panel would be getting about the same sun as the roof right now.
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  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    crazyboy
    Agree,
    However won't it be possible to play around with the angle, I mean by tweaking the design and getting some type of reflection to get the required angle?

    -CB
    Dynamically altering the angle of the solar panels is needed and this is not easy to implement

    Cos the Sun is not stable in a particular position The earth's rotation affects the angle a lot and so there is a need for correction of angle every 10 minutes which is not easy to implement
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    Phil Malone
    Look at the tree shadows. Looks to me that the left side panel would be getting about the same sun as the roof right now.
    In the Northern latitudes, in summer this may be true to some extent. In winter quite the reverse.
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    Conqueror
    Cos the Sun is not stable in a particular position The earth's rotation affects the angle a lot and so there is a need for correction of angle every 10 minutes which is not easy to implement
    A bigger issue is that the car itself is moving and changing direction all the time. Solar tracking is virtually impossible in this situation.
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  • Anil Jain

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    But whenevr it comes in the correct direction and a feasible angle, it will conserve some energy.

    "Something is better than nothing" Probably while doing parking a owner can park in the direction where it will have the maximum sunlight (obviously whenever possible).

    -CB
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  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Member • Jul 6, 2013

    crazyboy
    But whenevr it comes in the correct direction and a feasible angle, it will conserve some energy.

    "Something is better than nothing" Probably while doing parking a owner can park in the direction where it will have the maximum sunlight (obviously whenever possible).

    -CB
    These methods are set to improve but the overall efficiency of solar power harvest is under 10% Tech has to develop to increase this
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  • Phil Malone

    Member • Jul 19, 2013

    A.V.Ramani
    In the Northern latitudes, in summer this may be true to some extent. In winter quite the reverse.
    Seriously? I live in a Passive Solar home at a Lat of 40, so I know how the sun angles work year round... . The sun is Lower in the winter, so side panels may actually get MORE direct sun than the roof for much of the day. This is why panels are more vertical in the winter...
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