Even though we are finally feeling some relief at the pump, the painful memory of the exorbitant summer gas prices is still fresh in our minds. As we are prone to do once things become comfortable once again, we tend to slacken our pace in pursuing alternative methods of transportation. Even though we’ve been granted a temporary reprieve, we can’t grow complacent and need to earnestly continue the advancement of alternative fuels.

Solar power for cars is one of the most promising alternatives being developed. Though still in its infancy stages, the technology made a major advancement recently when a completely solar-powered car made a successful journey around the world. Swiss teacher and adventurer Louis Palmer built his own car that runs completely off of solar power. It can go as fast as 55mph and can travel 185 miles on a full battery.

Palmer arrived at the U.N. Climate Conference this past week after spending the past 17 months traveling through 38 countries. Palmer’s journey represents the first solar-powered car to successfully drive around the world. Palmer undertook this mission to demonstrate to the conference and to the world as a whole that it is possible to cut fuel-related carbon emissions by 100%.

Even though Palmer’s car is still only a rough prototype, his main objective is to prove that it can be done. He has already driven his car for his own personal purposes for over a year in addition to his most recent trip, as well as given rides to prominent people such as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kiboom. Thanks to Palmer, we now see that a fully functional solar-powered car is a reality. As he has said himself, the car manufactures should be more than capable of expounding upon his prototype and developing something for widespread use.

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Posted on December 22nd in Solar News by Anna.