Sunlight to Traction

This idea came about from a thought experiment where we considered what the world would look like all combustion engines were banned and everything was electrified.

This lead to us thinking about the wider energy system from which we realised what was important was considering the total energy transformation process from a photon of sunlight being converted to useful traction in a vehicle.

This now means all the steps in the energy chain need to be considered including balancing of the availability of sunlight and the demand from the vehicle. It made us think more broadly about how sunlight could be used to propel a vehicle fleet. The question now becomes what is the best approach to converting ‘sunlight to traction’.

Sunlight can be converted to electricity using a photovoltaic panel or wind turbine (via the differential heating of the atmosphere which results in wind). Sunlight is also absorbed by plants which can be then used as a source of chemical energy in an engine. So, we could use the energy from the sun to charge a battery for an electric vehicle but also in an internal combustion engine using a ‘grown’ fuel.

To explore this idea further, we started with the question ‘what’s wrong with the diesel’ engine but rapidly realised we should also ask ‘what’s right with the diesel engine’. Engines are remarkably cheap, have a high power density and use a compact dense energy source so are ideal for mobile applications. But, and this was the big but engines produce pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx). What if we could design an engine that didn’t produce NOx?

🔊  Listen to the pod cast on ‘The end of Polluting Lorries’ to find out what we did via Apple here, or Spotify here.