That is so nice. May he have all the support he needs to build more things.
Long time back, some of my friends and college mates built a solar car [1] that we took to Australia for world solar challenge 2011. It is a 3000km race across the continent. We were very happy to see the community around the solar cars is quite strong. The same has lead to companies like LightYear[2] working on extending range of EVs with solar.
It was quite a struggle back then. Our LiFePo4 batteries got lost in shipping so we had to use 4 times heavier car gel batteries, our car had to be sawed in three sections a few days before the shipping, so we could ship in time, we got bad media coverage in Australia as we spent a few nights sleeping in the garage trying to join the sawed parts together (They kinda hinted we were poor and did not have a place to live, while we had a hostel but still had to work round the clock to make it in time as some people arrived late due to delays), and we often ran out of money as the university could only sponsor the car and not all our expenses. So, we lived on credit. When we came back, we heard foul things from people who thought we stole their funding, I had low attendance in the courses and was about to be flunked. I cried to the administration to let me sit for the exams. But we stuck together as a team.
I am happy that we did it. I learned a lot.
I guess, projects like these should be encouraged. Even though the car we made was not a great one compared to the western fordian ideals of efficiency and speed, but we felt that India (and other developing countries) need representation and visibility in this domain. We built a car with whatever we had and hey! it still runs robustly. It is a bit slow, but hey! Australia is soo beautiful, we gotta take our time. We did make it to finish line without any major repairs. The cost of our entire car was equivalent to the cost of the spare motor used by one of the top teams.
I always think, there are other ways of looking at things than efficiency and speed, like initiative, frugality and the spirit of creation. There are often less stories on the second side. This story is one of them.
That's quite a story. Given how much money companies like Shell and so on put into the Western universities projects (and let's not get started on the subject of the available tooling and manufacturing R&D available) I'm actually much more impressed with your entry than with the winner of that particular episode.
In India also they build solar vehicle, the students. Most of the material is Chinese, government imposes duties on these things and Indian students are not able to afford the raw material needed to build these as a result.
Weird thing is indian government imposes duties on products that India doesn't even make.
Adani has been making and selling solar panels in india for the last 2+ years, the duties are a late step to stop Chinese dumping that wiped out solar panel manufacturing being done by companies like moserbear in Greater Noida a decade ago.
Why would they not use old solar panels. Certainly in a country as big as India, there must be a tonne of them for students. I understand you wanted to complain about the tariffs. It's still a valid question.
To give some ideas of the power requirements here, a TukTuk is quite a bit heavier than a bicycle+rider, I did a 150Km trip yesterday on an e-bike, consuming about 1200 Wh of battery power and supplying the reminder the old fashioned way (using the pedals :), typically the balance is about 2/3rds pedal power and 1/3rd motor unless going uphill.
1200 Wh would require a surface of about 4 square meters of panels for an hour in direct sunlight. Let's multiply that by three or so for this TukTuk on account of the weight difference and much larger frontal area as well as the much wider 3 wheels and you can get an idea of how much duty cycle you can get out of this setup. This could be improved by adding a wall socket charger but then it isn't really solar powered anymore, at best it would be solar augmented.
This seems like a market niche that is going to grow very rapidly as it passes a tipping point.
I look forward to the repeat of hearing about Africans paying for things with their mobile phones and thinking, wow, that sounds like the future. But this time it will be low pollution urban areas near the equator where renewable powered electric transport is the rule, not the exception.
How liquid is the market for second hand PV? If half a panel is damaged does it make economic sense to ship it to a poorer but sunnier location where it can be repurposed even if it doesn't meet the needs of the original owner? The second hand EV battery market seems fairly robust even at its current small size.
Having been a couple of times outside of our cozy Europe in African and South American countries, I am always amazed how people make do with what they have.
And in a similar note, how much they could actually have if instead war and exploitation, they were able to explore the countries resources.
Relatedly, just imagine if the entire world's population could enjoy the privileges most of us HNers generally take for granted. Access to free (higher) education, internet, higher paid/skilled job market, cheap hardware, et al. I would guess at minimum a ten-fold increase globally of engineers, IT-experts, scientists, etc. who could contribute their knowledge and skills, thereby potentially benefiting everyone on Earth.
Having the solar cells on the side looks like a wrong design. But let's assume there is some on the roof. 1sqm of panel in Sri Lanka shd generate 150 Watts during clear day, according to one source you need 6.8kwh (which sounds too high for me) for 20km im urban area, 44hours of charging. 2sqm 22 hours.
If the panels catch some light while it is moving it might make for a good assist, 150 watts extra is nothing to sneeze at with a pedal powered vehicle. When I'm cycling longer distances I can sustain 80-125 watts for 3 hours or so, which is definitely not athlete material but pretty decent for an old guy with a gimp leg ;)
Going uphill that would make a huge difference (especially because a Tuk-Tuk is quite heavy), more so if you can store the power when you don't need it and dump it all in one go when you're going uphill, but then you'd need to have a battery in the system.
i own an electric scooter which is a 250 Watt motor and has a 48V 24Ah battery so 1KWH. this gives me about 50 Km for one charge. on this scooter, i put over 220 KG of load and it runs so there should be no problems putting two of those motors in a three wheel design. about power, i am sure this is just for "topping up" the battery because one can have a battery bank at home which charges from sun which can be swapped for next day. that way you can put even a 330 watt panel and that should charge this system during the entire day. then you have to account for cloudy days and such so maybe bump the solar up so if you put something like 500 Watts or more with a second battery pack of 2+ Kwh, that should be comfortable
In good dry Norwegian summer weather, at a steady 90 kph on the flat, my 2015 Model S 70D will consume about 170 Wh/km, that's 3.4 kWh for 20 km. So 6.8 kWh for urban driving with what is probably a much less efficient drive train sounds a bit high but not wildly off.
[+] [-] indiantinker|4 years ago|reply
Long time back, some of my friends and college mates built a solar car [1] that we took to Australia for world solar challenge 2011. It is a 3000km race across the continent. We were very happy to see the community around the solar cars is quite strong. The same has lead to companies like LightYear[2] working on extending range of EVs with solar.
It was quite a struggle back then. Our LiFePo4 batteries got lost in shipping so we had to use 4 times heavier car gel batteries, our car had to be sawed in three sections a few days before the shipping, so we could ship in time, we got bad media coverage in Australia as we spent a few nights sleeping in the garage trying to join the sawed parts together (They kinda hinted we were poor and did not have a place to live, while we had a hostel but still had to work round the clock to make it in time as some people arrived late due to delays), and we often ran out of money as the university could only sponsor the car and not all our expenses. So, we lived on credit. When we came back, we heard foul things from people who thought we stole their funding, I had low attendance in the courses and was about to be flunked. I cried to the administration to let me sit for the exams. But we stuck together as a team. I am happy that we did it. I learned a lot.
I guess, projects like these should be encouraged. Even though the car we made was not a great one compared to the western fordian ideals of efficiency and speed, but we felt that India (and other developing countries) need representation and visibility in this domain. We built a car with whatever we had and hey! it still runs robustly. It is a bit slow, but hey! Australia is soo beautiful, we gotta take our time. We did make it to finish line without any major repairs. The cost of our entire car was equivalent to the cost of the spare motor used by one of the top teams.
I always think, there are other ways of looking at things than efficiency and speed, like initiative, frugality and the spirit of creation. There are often less stories on the second side. This story is one of them.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjHEYckl8xI [2] https://lightyear.one/
[+] [-] jacquesm|4 years ago|reply
Props to you and your team.
[+] [-] teitoklien|4 years ago|reply
Even better to see it on independence day :D
[+] [-] oefnak|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wolfretcrap|4 years ago|reply
Weird thing is indian government imposes duties on products that India doesn't even make.
[+] [-] commandpaul|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] miohtama|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hungryforcodes|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hemapani|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|4 years ago|reply
1200 Wh would require a surface of about 4 square meters of panels for an hour in direct sunlight. Let's multiply that by three or so for this TukTuk on account of the weight difference and much larger frontal area as well as the much wider 3 wheels and you can get an idea of how much duty cycle you can get out of this setup. This could be improved by adding a wall socket charger but then it isn't really solar powered anymore, at best it would be solar augmented.
Useful calculator for bicycle power consumption:
https://www.tribology-abc.com/calculators/cycling.htm
[+] [-] ZeroGravitas|4 years ago|reply
I look forward to the repeat of hearing about Africans paying for things with their mobile phones and thinking, wow, that sounds like the future. But this time it will be low pollution urban areas near the equator where renewable powered electric transport is the rule, not the exception.
How liquid is the market for second hand PV? If half a panel is damaged does it make economic sense to ship it to a poorer but sunnier location where it can be repurposed even if it doesn't meet the needs of the original owner? The second hand EV battery market seems fairly robust even at its current small size.
[+] [-] Causality1|4 years ago|reply
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilonalimonta-volkova/2020/12/07...
[+] [-] rukshn|4 years ago|reply
However, the lack of a good startup ecosystem and education system not willing to support hem, they don’t make it beyond these articles.
[+] [-] pjmlp|4 years ago|reply
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba
Having been a couple of times outside of our cozy Europe in African and South American countries, I am always amazed how people make do with what they have.
And in a similar note, how much they could actually have if instead war and exploitation, they were able to explore the countries resources.
[+] [-] yoda97|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glenneroo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andi999|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|4 years ago|reply
Going uphill that would make a huge difference (especially because a Tuk-Tuk is quite heavy), more so if you can store the power when you don't need it and dump it all in one go when you're going uphill, but then you'd need to have a battery in the system.
[+] [-] 2Gkashmiri|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taneq|4 years ago|reply
I agree, though, that even if it only draws 500W then this thing is only going to be driving for a few minutes a day on that amount of panels.
Cool scooter for a highschool kid though!
[+] [-] kwhitefoot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] real-dino|4 years ago|reply
Ambient light however, cannot travel even a km, as soon as the sun stops hitting that part of the earth, the output drops to zero.
This is despite the human eye being able to see.
[+] [-] tandav|4 years ago|reply