Solar Car Finishes Record-Breaking Around-the-World Trip

To celebrate the record-breaking environmental achievement, the driver arrived at the World Climate Change Conference in Poland and plowed through a wall of Styrofoam, releasing some of the only harmful emissions on the car’s 32,000-mile trip.

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Louis Palmer, 36, drove the “solar taxi” through 38 countries, picking up celebrities and global officials for short legs along the way. Palmer says his passengers included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Monaco’s Prince Albert, Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron, and Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The car lost merely two days to repairs since embarking in July 2007. While the car ran mostly on solar-power, he sometimes had to plug-in to leech from local power sources to charge his batteries. So when he charged up to get through Poland in the winter, it became perhaps more of a “coal taxi.”

While Palmer spent a fortune building the car from scratch, he says the car would cost under $20,000 retail if it were ever mass produced.

“People love this idea of a solar car,” Palmer said. “I hope that the car industry hears ….and makes electric cars in future.”

Photo courtesy of Solar Taxi

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Tags: alternative energy, COP14, poland, solar powered car, solar taxi, world record

About the Author

Alex Felsinger is primarily concerned with animal welfare, wildlife conservation, and environmental justice. As a freelance writer in San Francisco, he leads a deliberately simplistic and thrifty lifestyle, yet still can’t help gawking at the newest green gadgets and zero-emission concept cars.

http://www.zoomilife.com Electric Vehicle Blog

That’s an awesome achievement, but I wonder why they picked styrofoam to drive through at the end? Doesn’t seem like a very environment-friendly kind of gesture to me – why not some thing made out of recycled paper or something? Would seem more apropos.
http://www.zoomilife.com Electric Vehicle Blog

That’s an awesome achievement, but I wonder why they picked styrofoam to drive through at the end? Doesn’t seem like a very environment-friendly kind of gesture to me – why not some thing made out of recycled paper or something? Would seem more apropos.
Michael Bryant

under 20000 how? are solar cells very expensive?
Michael Bryant

under 20000 how? are solar cells very expensive?