solar losses due to heat build up are a concern of mine. in my testing, the current can nearly be cut in half due to thermal buildup. will the aptera have any kind of solar cooling to keep the current at maximum? In the vehicle design I have been working on, the plan was to use passive cooling by creating a small pocket of space between the solar and the actual roof, with a simple adjustable louver system at the front of the vehicle and a vent at the rear. thanks so much.
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On last Wednesday's conference call, Aptera's co-CEO's and founders discussed new details of their unique active cooling system. Rather than use a traditional radiator as all other ICE and EV's use, the Aptera uses "microfluidic channels" built into much of Aptera's skin panels. They did this to remove the significant aerodynamic drag caused by traditional radiators.
This is not unlike the way animals (like us) cool themselves by expanding their capillaries in their skin when they are overheated.
These liquid filled channels are in the roof, the belly and in its side panels. So the roof panels cool the solar panels to make them more efficient, warm or cool the batteries as required, and remove excess heat through the belly and side panels.
Chris Anthony mentioned you can sometimes feel that the side of the Aptera's skin is surprising warm. Steve Fambro added that in certain weather conditions you can see the microfluidic channels form visible patterns made by frost or condensation on the skin. (How cool is that! 8-) )
It's a good idea to use microchannel heat exchange to collect heat from the solar panels. But what is not clear is how this heat is dissipated.
with micro channels in the skin of the vehicle, how would you change out the fluid and ensure you purge all the air out of the system?
Einhoven doesn't use any passive cooling. They say
"When Stella's are at a standstill, they do not get any active cooling. They actually get quite hot! During driving, they are cooled by the wind, so no active cooling needed (at least not from our side)."
I wonder what kind of lifetime advantage to cell longevity and increased energy output could be had with simple passive cooling, or even better, a small fan to draw in cool air when there isn't enough wind to have a useful air exchange.
Good question and I am not sure.
I could share “other information “ that you may find useful but NOT your answer.😞
As you may know.... the solar array will also power an interior heat venting system for the vehicle itself, besides the Never Charge.
Understand Aptera is coming in on completing their Development vehicles soon, so spec should be available shortly.
The battery specs were ~ 0-120*F. The Dev vehicles would be tested with their final choice of batteries
Both my homes’ PV Solar Arrays were/are roof mounded and the brackets set them about 4-6” off the roof itself, so that did provide some passive cooling and the heat loss did not seem that bad. I am in solar zone 8 now and I am checking my production on my 7kWh system.... It is producing 6kWh per day on these partly cloudy, nearly 100*F summer days
I never clean my home PV solar panels and I am in an dry dusty desert
I would think most would clean there aptera frequently, for what that is worth on production 😉
Apetra’s website has their solar calculator.
I believe I read they had significant hrs of testing on the present Never Charge solar array on their simulation jig.
I assume all tested in sunny southern CA.
The decade old small solar array on their old 2e was mainly used for venting heat from those old 12 or so (?) prototypes
Just for reading... you may find this product interesting as to how they maintain the efficiency of the PV generation, with, tracking, passive cooling, self cleaning. Of course not for mobile use! It is $$$
Smartflower.com
I was going to investigate this but we have too many breezy days here, so it would be closing and reopening too frequently