Turkey’s first domestic solar panel powers up electric cars were designed by college students in Izmir.
Dokuz Eylul University, in cooperation with Izmir Development Agency, is producing the base of the solar energy systems that is silicon-based photovoltaic cells on campus. Underlining that Turkey has been importing almost all of the important parts of the solar panels, the project's coordinator, Prof. Dr. Erdal Celik added that the world has been increasingly focusing more on renewable energy investments.
"We wish to show people how solar energy can be used and transform our daily routines, thus far, this technology was imported but now we are capable of producing domestic solar cells,” Celik said.
So far one electric car is being power by this solar system on campus and by June, two more electric cars and a boat will be prepared. The first application of these vehicles will be conducted in Dokuz Eylul University's campus. Upon the completion of the project, Celik said that officials and industrialists will be invited to the campus in order to demonstrate the project with the aim of making the project commercially viable in the near future.
Currently USA, Japan, China, Germany, South Korea are the main producers of photovoltaic technologies. Globally around 0.41 percent of energy is produced by solar systems, and as the importance of green energy rises, it is expected to rise exponentially.