Currently, many scientists are being attracted by the idea of a car that runs on solar power. If conventional cars were replaced by solar-power cars, emissions from the transportation industry will greatly reduce, since solar-power does not release any greenhouse gasses at all. Due to the existence of several design problems, the first solar powered car still hasn’t been released to the public. However, soon the problems with this car will be fixed, and this technological wonder that is currently science fiction will become a reality, and help reduce worldwide emissions.
Solar powered cars are like regular cars except for the fact they do not emit harmful gasses into the atmosphere. Instead, they run completely on clean energy, meaning that they do not harm the environment at all. Cars that run on this sort of electricity can be used for the same purposes as any regular car, with the advantage that no carbon is released. By now, it is safe to say that humans will need this technology in the future. In 2021, humanity had been consuming 94.1 million barrels of oil every day. That’s 4.25 billion metric tons of oil consumed during the entire year or 1.134 trillion gallons annually. It has been estimated that oil consumption will rise by over 14 million barrels per day from 2023 to 2040, bringing our total oil usage to 42 billion barrels a year by the end of that period. A great way to stop this from happening is by building solar cars in the future to slow down and maybe even stop this negative trend. No matter when we start building solar cars, it better be soon. Once Albert Einstein quoted: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Solar cars will play an important role in helping prevent climate change.
Replacing regular cars with solar powered cars can make people healthier. Carbon dioxide can be harmful at concentrations as low as 1%. Upon inhaling air that is more than one percent carbon dioxide, your heartbeat and breathing rate will be affected. If the air is ten percent carbon, a person inhaling this air will likely end up in a comatose state or die. Worldwide, it would take an average of 12.8 people to emit enough carbon dioxide to kill a single person. With roughly eight billion people, emissions would be high enough to result in 625 million deaths. If we replaced just one coal power plant with a zero-emissions alternative for a year, it would save 904 lives. Replacing our cars with solar powered cars would have an impact far greater than that though. The worst part about carbon dioxide is that previously, humans did not know their effect when burning oil so our damage to the environment was largely undetected during and after the industrial revolution. Humans need to focus on decreasing their carbon emissions, and a great way to do that is by building more solar cars. With less carbon dioxide emitted, there will be less places with such high percentages of this hard-to-detect but harmful gas.
Although solar powered cars seem great, they still have some problems. They rely on the sun for energy, so they will not be able to work during cloudy, rainy, or foggy days. We could solve this by installing more batteries on them, but batteries are still very expensive. Plus, batteries would increase the car’s weight, requiring even more energy to move it. In the end, the vehicle would be so massive that it would work only when there is sunlight. Due to these issues, the solar car could only have room for one person or it would be too heavy to move at all. We need smaller, more efficient solar panels if we want to make solar cars a reality. However, there are activists who urge action on the development of solar powered cars. In fact, Leonardo DiCaprio once quoted: “I urge individuals around the world to stand up, and ask local leaders, if they haven't already, to pledge to purchase cleaner cars, build green facilities, and buy green power like wind or solar energy. Our actions may determine if we become a casualty in the war for a habitable planet for generations to come.” There are still some problems with solar cars, but they will be fixed eventually.
In recent years, scientists have become very excited at the idea of a solar powered car. This is mostly because of the harm that carbon dioxide poses to the environment and the human body’s health. Solar powered cars on the other hand run on clean energy. Many people expect the first successful model of a solar powered car in a few years. Solar powered cars will be quite useful to humans indeed once they become a reality, as they will become a powerful tool in fighting against climate change. Solar energy could even be applied to other vehicles in the future in order to make them more efficient. Until solar powered vehicles make their presence, all we can be sure about for now is that a new age of travel awaits us.
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