- Title: ISRAEL: PROFESSOR UNVEILS REVOLUTIONARY SOLAR-POWERED CAR.
- Date: 13th September 1976
- Summary: 1. CU Solar cells on roof of university building 0.05 2. CU PAN INTERIOR Wires leading from windows TO Professor Arye Braunstein's workbench 0.15 3. CU PAN FROM Connection being made TO motor turning 0.24 4. CU Professor Braunstein (nearest) using power to ignite light bulbs 0.40 5. SV PAN Braunstein leaves house and enters his solar ener
- Embargoed: 28th September 1976 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- Country: Israel
- Reuters ID: LVACBGK8P0RFV0DOHIYMMQXZBAW7
- Story Text: Israeli inventor, Professor Arye Braunstein, has been working for some years on the applications of solar energy. As head of the Power Engineering department of sunny Tel Aviv's university, he has access to the best of modern research equipment.....
SYNOPSIS: .....and a nice spacious roof as a site for his panels of solar cells -- collecting energy from the sun's rays and feeding it into a variety of test equipment. The idea is to work out a method of providing enough power to run all the gadgets needed in a one-family modern house. The Professor says that when his technique has been perfected it will be by far the cheapest ??? energy source. Professor Braunstein predicts that by 1980 solar cells will be available at a tenth of their present price and will also be smaller.
Professor Braunstein has also thought up another use for solar energy, which could radically change the sight, sound and smell of the cities of the world in the foreseeable future. It is a partially solar-energy powered electric car.
Its inventor has been granted a temporary licence to drive around the streets of Tel Aviv - where all eyes are caught by the sight of two silicone solar cell panels attached to the roof and bonnet. The car is a remodelled Vanguard Sebring, and its adapted washing-machine motor sits over the back axle, driving the rear wheels. At present solar energy provides only 25 per cent of its power.
But soon Professor Braunstein intends to install a more efficient cell system, to provide 50 per cent of the charge needed, working towards a point where 100 per cent of the vehicle's power source will come from the sun. At present to keep the "Citicar" on the road you have to charge it from a domestic electricity supply at night -- and make sure you park it inn full sunlight during the day.
At the moment Professor Braunstein's brain-child has a range of 80 Kilometres (50 miles) - which he says can easily be extended by using improved solar energy cells. In its moist advanced form it completely eliminates the need for fossil fuels - an attractive feature for Israel, with possible future oil embargoes in mind.
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