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As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car

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Six Flags Over Tomsk
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
The solar powered Toyota story was obviously a red herring leaked by Toyota itself to distract outsiders from their real next killer app: a unicorn fart and rainbow powered Toyota!
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engineerd
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
Thank God! I was dreading having to give my greenie co-worker a drive to work all winter because his solar-powered car would be dead by October in Michigan.
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STR8SIX
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
You disappoint me, Ben. I thought your photoshop skills were better than that. Why not include a bandanna-clad, gold chain wearing Raisin Bran sun posing in front of a Prius?
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Ben Wojdyla
01/05/09

@STR8SIX: er, that's not photoshopped.
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RLJ676-LS3 Commuter Car - for the environment
01/05/09

@Ben Wojdyla:

Wait, so some wealthy smug-monger has that "super-green" cabin setup? Is it Ed Begley?
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Graverobber
01/05/09

@rlj676-new job, same problems: My neighbor is the environmental reporter for the local NPR station. They have photovoltaics on the roof, gray water recycling and native plantings in the yard. They drive a . . . wait for it . . . Prius.
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Bumblebee
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
Solar power is awesome. I know a guy who covered half his barn roof with them and the local power company sends him a check each month for contributing to the grid.

My folks are using them on their renovated home. They're zero maintenance and lower the electric bill. Stick it to the man!
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Elhigh
01/05/09

@Bumblebee: Hang on to your shoes. Photovoltaics are poised to make a big jump in bang-for-the-buck. Nanosolar has perfected a roll-to-roll process that can make photovoltaics panels in a huge industrial printing-press fashion, like generating miles and miles of newsprint, except it's on a metallic foil backing and semiconductor dopants and whatnot, it's just astounding. Current estimates place the cost to produce at about $0.99 per watt.

It isn't as efficient at converting light to power as some other methods, but damn - it's under a buck a watt! Where I live that puts the payback at just three or four years.
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Brimful of Ash on the 78
01/05/09

@Elhigh: Sounds great--If you can get the payback period WITHIN the average home ownership timeframe (which I believe is 7 years), it's a slam dunk. People need to see results in front of them. I think the only reason more people aren't on the PV bandwagon is the 10-20 year payoff period, depending on where they live.
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Bumblebee
01/05/09

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: I'd be more inclined to calculate the value of the solar panels as to how much value they add to the property, and not how soon they pay for themselves according to the power bill.
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Brimful of Ash on the 78
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
Already done in 1987. Sadly, not enough cupholders.

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Ben Wojdyla
01/05/09

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: And a hard sell in New England and Seattle.
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Comrade Teargaskov
01/05/09

In reply to As Expected, No Toyota Solar-Powered Car
What if you had a dirt track wing, made of solar cells? That do anything for you? Could be sweet...
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