Solar-Powered Car Completes Round-The-World Trip
Date: 05-Dec-08
Country: POLAND
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
Solar-Powered Car Completes Round-The-World Trip Photo: Kacper Pempel
A solar-powered vehicle breaks through a foamed polystyrene wall with the
distance of 52,000 km (32,311 miles) written on it in front of the buildings
where the UN climate change conference is being held in Poznan December 4,
2008.
Photo: Kacper Pempel
POZNAN - A Swiss teacher completed the first round-the-world trip in a
solar-powered car on Thursday and said he hoped the 52,000-km (32,000-mile)
odyssey would inspire carmakers to make greener models.
Louis Palmer smashed his "solar taxi" through a wall of polystyrene blocks
marking the end of the 17-month trip outside the venue of U.N. climate talks
in Poland with Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate change official, in the
passenger seat.
"I think it's great -- he's driven around the world in this thing so that's
a world record," de Boer said after clambering out of the blue and white
three-wheeled car, which tows a flat-topped trailer with 6 sq meters of
solar panels.
"The car ran like a Swiss clock," said Palmer, 36, after the trip through 38
nations during which he said he lost just two days to repairs since leaving
Lucerne in July 2007.
He said he got an enthusiastic welcome everywhere on a trip that took him
through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and North America, with
some stretches by ferry. Only Japan, which bans cars with Swiss license
plates, refused entry.
"People love this idea of a solar car," he said. "I hope that the car
industry hears ....and makes electric cars in future."
Passengers included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Monaco's Prince
Albert, Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
and Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, he said.
The car runs on solar power but Palmer also had a battery for travel at
night or in less sunny nations, such as winter-time Poland, that he
recharged from local electricity.
Palmer says the car cost as much as two Ferraris to build and has a top
speed of 90 km (55 miles) per hour. If mass produced, he said it could cost
10,000 euros ($12,620), with an extra 4,000 euros for solar panels.
Palmer said he would now return home. "I promised my mother to be back
before Christmas," he said.
Next year, he said he hoped to arrange a trip with six vehicles around the
world in 80 days drawing power from sources such as hydro, geothermal and
wind energy.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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