Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Mercedes claims new 'solar paint' could eliminate daily EV charging:

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Mercedes claims new 'solar paint' could eliminate daily EV charging:

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a list of research programs and future technologies it's working on including a "new kind of solar paint" it says could generate enough energy for up to 20,000 km (12,427 miles) of driving per year under ideal conditions.

But what if the entire painted surface of the car could capture solar energy?

Solar paint is not a new idea in and of itself; there are a few different techniques, mainly within the research space, that allow photovoltaic material to be sprayed directly onto surfaces. Painting entire cars with it, however, would be quite a leap forward – and that's what Mercedes-Benz is talking about as part of a new "Pioneering innovations for the car of the future" presentation outlining some key research programs it's working on.

Here are the key claims distilled from the Benz press release:

The solar paint would add just 5 micrometers (0.0002 in) of thickness and 50 g of weight per square meter (0.17 oz per square foot) to a standard paint job

It would operate at around 20% efficiency

An area of 11 sq m (118 sq ft), or roughly the painted surface of a mid-size SUV, "could produce enough energy for up to 12,000 km (7,456 miles) a year under ideal conditions" in Stuttgart, Germany

That annual figure would be closer to 20,000 km (12,427 miles) in LA, or 14,000 km (8,700 miles) in Beijing

It contains no rare earths, no silicon, no toxic or supply-limited materials

It's recyclable

It's "considerably cheaper to produce than conventional solar modules"

The company says that based on local solar intensity and its own data on daily driving habits, this solar paint could completely eliminate plug-in charging for the average EV owner in Los Angeles making their daily commute.

In the company's cloudier home of Stuttgart, where Benz drivers cover an average of 52 km (32 miles) daily, the paint would allegedly generate more like 62% of the required energy.

Mercedes-Benz doesn't outline exactly what the active ingredient is here, but we can take a guess. Based on the efficiency level, the thickness, the lack of rare earths and silicon, and the claimed low cost of the solar paint, we'd imagine it's probably a sprayable perovskite solution.

Perovskite has delivered higher efficiencies in the lab, and fits the rest of the profile. The chief issue over the last decade or so has been getting it to last long enough to be worthwhile, since it's proven vulnerable to water and ultraviolet light, ironically enough.

But there appear to be coatings that can make it much more robust – like the BondLynx adhesive from Canadian company XlynX, and another coating developed at Princeton University, which promises a lifespan of up to 30 years. We're yet to see anything of the sort make it through to a commercial operation, even at small scale.

Source :Mercedes Benz/www.newatlas.com