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'Solar taxi' completes round-the-world tour

05 December 2008

A solar-powered car has become the first to travel around the world.

The vehicle, which completed its travels by delivering UN climate official Yvo de Boer to climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland, travelled through 38 countries powered only by solar energy which it collected on a trailer it was towing.

Louis Palmer, who calls the 500 kilogram car he drove on a 32,000 mile journey the "solar taxi", said that the technologies to make motoring green are ready.

"This is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has traveled all the way around the world without using a single drop of petrol," he said.

"It's ecological, it's economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warning."

The car, which Mr Palmer claims runs "like a Swiss clock", can reach 55 miles per hour and travels 185 miles on a fully charged battery.

On route to Poznan, where negotiations are taking place on a global climate change deal to replace the Kyoto Protocols, the taxi had passengers such as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

The Committee on Climate Change recommended cleaning up motoring in order to achieve CO2 reducing targets.

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