wind-powered cars?

[MetalSmitten]

This is something that's been kinda buggin my brains for a while now, but I admit I don't understand enough about the concept to really know if it is or isn't feasible... So, there are already electric cars that can run solely from a charged battery. Those are always (to my knowledge) basically just plugged into an outlet to charge up. But would it be possible to rig up a wind turbine (or many small ones) to an electric car so that it recharges itself using the wind generated while driving the car? It seems like such an obvious way to recharge a car battery, that I can't believe nobody's done it yet - which makes me wonder if I'm missing something. =/ Any thoughts?

 

[Boogity]

What you're describing is close to a perpetual motion machine and it is not possible. Mankind has tried and tried for hundreds of years with no success. Many volumes have been written about the pursuit of perpetual motion.

 

[Wifezilla]

The drag and friction created by the turbines would take more energy than it created. Of course, it could be used as part of a braking system and you could supplement there. I think there are some cars that use braking to partially recharge electric systems.

 

[patandchickens]

This is something that's been kinda buggin my brains for a while now, but I admit I don't understand enough about the concept to really know if it is or isn't feasible... <snip>would it be possible to rig up a wind turbine (or many small ones) to an electric car so that it recharges itself using the wind generated while driving the car?

Basically no. (also sorta vaguely yes, see end of reply)

The reason is that the only thing "generating" that wind is the gas you're expending to move the car. (The gas you burn does more than *just* move the car, it also makes noise and heat and the mvmt of the car makes wind due to air resistance). And if you add turbines or whatever to try to *use* that wind, it will cause MORE air resistance. I expect that on very poorly-aerodynamic car designs (don't know whether any current ones are poor enough) there might be some individual locations where you could put something to, say, run the dashboard lights , but there is no way it would work *overall* the way you are envisioning. And the more aerodynamic the car body design, the less opportunity there would be anyhow.

As Boogity says, you are essentially talking about getting something from nothing, perpetual motion, and it ain't gonna happen.

That said... I know some freeways in California were experimenting maybe 20 years ago with having leetle wind turbines on the median strips, not to power the city of L.A. or anything <g> but to at least run some lit signs and suchlike. The idea was that since you ARE, unavoidably, moving air around when you drive your car, perhaps some of that energy could be recaptured for tiny-scale electrical generation.

I have NO CLUE what ever happened to that, if it became standard equipment in California (or anywhere else with always-warm climate and lotsa traffic) or whether it proved unfeasible or politically-incorrect and died out... perhaps some of our CA members might know?

Anyhow, something like that is your only real bet for recapturing some of that 'wasted' energy in a useful way.

Pat