Solar energy for electric vehicles: systems analysis

Discusses a new tank for carrying solar energy-the zinc-air battery, which can deliver propulsion energy from sunlight with greater efficiency and less value-added expense. This battery generates electric energy by combining zinc from its anode with oxygen from air to form zincate. At the recharging station the zincate is replaced with zinc, and the zincate is sent to a electro-winnowing plant where the zinc is recovered. The main cost of delivered solar power is the interest on the money invested in the solar-cell arrays. This interest, which persists even when the sun is not shining, has made solar power plants non-competitive for generating power for American electric utilities. In a tropical desert clouds rarely interrupt the intense sunlight, and the zinc output from a solar-powered electro-winnowing plant can be stockpiled. In a tropical desert a hectare-size solar-power plant with 30-percent efficient solar cells can in eight hours recover enough zinc to power 36,000 km (22,000 miles) of travel in lightweight 4-passenger Irmscher electric vehicles. The cost of the energy for a vehicle's 120 km travel range would be $2.88. If the desert processing plant is 5000 km from the user's port, the shipping cost of the zincate and zinc would add 17.5 cents to the cost of 120 km travel in the Irmscher.