After completing 32,000 miles, passing through 38 different countries and 17 months after he left home, the Swiss teacher, Louis Palmer, has become the first person to travel around the world in a car completely powered by the rays of the sun.

The two-seater vehicle, dubbed the Solar Taxi, only lost a couple of travel days for mechanical reasons, arrived at the UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland without using a single drop of fossil fuel and zero emissions. The car is Palmer's own creation of hodgepodge bits and pieces from existing vehicles can reach 55 mph and can travel up to 185 miles on a full solar charge.

The Swiss solar adventurer, from the city of Lucern, believes that the world's top auto makers could actually produce a viable functioning solar-powered vehicle if they really put their minds, and resources to it.

Palmer's timing is typically Swiss: perfect. Not only in terms of the UN climate summit which has the attention of the world's media with 11,000 international delegates descending on the Polish city to discuss the new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Agreement—which expires in 2112—but also because the big three US auto makers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, are begging the beleagured American taxpayer for a $34 billion bailout.

Palmer's home-made engineering achievement will have US taxpayers asking for a significant percentage of their bailout money, if it is granted by congress, to be devoted to developing cleantech transportation here in the US. After all, if a Swiss school teacher can travel around the world using limited funds and resources, then surly the titans of Motor City could do a better job and on a much bigger scale.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Just ask Loius Palmer.