The Solar Taxi with Swiss driver Louis Palmer.

SOURCE: BBC

A Swiss teacher, Louis Palmer, has proven you can drive around the world powered by renewable energy. He completed a 17-month-round-the-world trip in a car powered primarily by solar energy in December 2008.

Palmer told the BBC that the feat proved solar power was a viable alternative to oil-based fuels.

The small blue-and-white three-wheeler tows a trailer packed with batteries charged by the sun. It can travel for 300km on a single charge and reach speeds of 90km/h (55mph).

"People love this idea of a solar car," Palmer said. "I hope that the car industry hears...and makes electric cars in the future."

Palmer, 36, said the car ran "like a Swiss clock," breaking down only twice during the gruelling trip through 38 nations starting in Lucerne in July 2007.

The car runs on solar power. However Palmer also had a battery for travel at night or in less sunny nations, such as winter-time Poland, that he recharged from local electricity.

This June, Palmer plans to participate in, and run, a renewable energy race -- the Zero Emissions Race -- with others.

For more, go to --> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7766249.stm or to http://solartaxi.com, or to http://zero-race.com

Related stories -->

• Solaring their way from Sweden to Spain
• They're going to cross Canada on renewables only
• Global zero emissions race will kick off in June

(SolarChargedDriving.Com Newswire article posted 12-26-09)