A piece from this weekend

When I first met Louis Palmer, a Swiss schoolteacher spending the week in New York, he was in the midst of a predicament familiar to most automotive New Yorkers -- he'd woken up to find his car wedged tightly into its parking space, a small tan sedan having parked within inches of his bumper. I watched as, with a mix of determination and consternation unique to urban drivers, he wrestled with the steering wheel for a few minutes, weaving the vehicle back and forth, trying to find an angle advantageous to his situation. Eventually, uttering the traditional expletives under his breath, Mr. Palmer stepped out of his car to assess his options. It appeared that he was, in fact, stuck, and so there was only one thing left to do: he reached back inside, pulled a lever, and then carted the rear half of his car out of the way and across the street.

Mr. Palmer's is a decidedly unique car on a straightforward, if equally unique, mission -- to prove, by means of global demonstration, the viability of solar-powered travel. Mr. Palmer and his Solar Taxi have thus far logged 27,500 miles over fourteen months in their trip around the world, powered only by the sun.

Mr. Palmer and his support team arrived in New York City on Friday, September 5, where they were made guests of the country's first green residential high-rise, Battery Park City's Solaire. "Sustainability brings a lot of good people together," said Mike Gubbins, Director of Residential Management for the Albanese Organization -- the developer behind the environmentally designed Solaire, Verdesian and Visionaire residences -- who offered Mr. Palmer's team lodging for the duration of their stay. Over the past week, Mr. Palmer and his Solar Taxi have played chauffeur to New Yorkers big and small, from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to Battery Park City residents and this reporter. "I call it a taxi because I always give people rides," Mr. Palmer explained, estimating that he's had about a thousand different people in his passenger seat since his trip began. The point, he emphasized, is to demonstrate to the world that solar-powered vehicles are well within reach. "We have an energy crisis and a climate crisis; I want to show that we have a solution. It is affordable, it is reliable, and it is ready."

Indeed, there are fewer ways to prove that a concept has matured beyond the drawing board better than putting it to the most rigorous test at hand. And if that concept can thus be shown the world over, all the better. And thus far, by Mr. Palmer's estimation, the Solar Taxi has excelled. "In 14 months of driving, we only lost two days to breakdowns," said Mr. Palmer, elaborating with pride, "It's a Swiss car, with Swiss technology. It still runs like a Swiss clock." And, from the passenger's seat, at least, the car is an impressive work. As alluded to earlier, the Solar Taxi is made of two components: a three-wheeled car, not too much bigger than a SMART, attached to an approximately fifteen-foot long trailer lined with solar cells. The two-part nature is intentional, Mr. Palmer said -- the car can function independently from the trailer for 150-250 miles, depending on speed, allowing it to function as a perfectly small city car, temporarily leaving the unnecessary bulk of the solar panels behind. A full recharge of the batteries, Mr. Palmer said, takes about six hours. When combined, the two units weigh approximately 1500lbs -- a little more than half the weight of a Mini Cooper. Speaking easily over the engine's low whine, Mr. Palmer also pointed out that the Solar Taxi generates power efficiently enough that, to compete, a gas-powered vehicle would have to travel about 270 miles per gallon. And though the engine can only push the car a little past 55mph, its lightweight and torquey nature made for a quick and confident bout around Battery Park City. In fact, amongst the CD player, sporty seats and dashboard-mounted calculator, gauges and dials, the only concern of note on such a sun-powered day was that the Solar taxi lacks air conditioning. But then again, so does this reporter's beat-up old Volvo.

The fourteen months spent on the road seem only to have confirmed Mr. Palmer's conviction that affordable solar-powered travel is as possible as it is necessary. "The most surprising thing," he said of his travels, "is that, everywhere, there is so much awareness that something must be done." Though this particular vehicle has been sponsored by Q.cells, a German company and the world's largest producer of solar cells, Mr. Palmer believes that a commercialized version of the vehicle would be very affordable, saying that construction of the car and trailer cost $10,000 and $6,000, respectively.

The immediate future holds yet more travel for Mr. Palmer and his team, who, by the time of this printing, will have left New York City for Boston and Montreal. Nevertheless, he intends to return. "It's New York," he responded simply, when asked what brought him here, "when people see the car, they shout, they scream, they wave -- people don't do that in any other city." Next time, though, he hopes to have more cars: Mr. Palmer is planning a solar-powered race around the world, for which there are already four more cars in the works.