vehicle-integrated photovoltaics

A European consortium of commercial and research groups is developing lighter weight, solar-powered, cost-conscious, three and four-wheel prototype vehicles for passengers and cargo. The $13.4 million project aims for a platform that has standardized components, including the battery, powertrain, and solar PV parts, as well as support for end-of-life, maintenance, and refurbishment.

Researchers in Slovenia have built a monitoring system for vehicle-integrated photovoltaics consisting of an IV curve scanner that uses a MOSFET as a voltage-controlled electronic load. The system also utilizes an 18-bit analog-to-digital converter and a microchip microcontroller.

In its first monthly column for pv magazine, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) explains how a team of its experts is currently working on the definition of new standards for VIPV systems.

Canadian custom module manufacturer Capsolar developed a vehicle integrated PV system (VIPV) for an electric material towing application, reportedly enabling 30% to 40% range increase per battery charge.

New research shows high potential for solar-powered vehicles across the world, providing between 11 km/day/kWp to 29 km/day/kWp of extended range in open areas, enabling significant levels of self-sufficiency.

OPES Solar Mobility, a joint venture between solar module specialist OPES Solutions and a German family office, is creating manufacturing capacity with its own technology in Germany to provide specific support to the transportation industry.

Researchers in South Korea have developed a process to enable colored and flexible, thin film modules suitable for vehicle and building-integrated PV applications. It is reportedly a low-cost process that does not significantly impact power conversion efficiency.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE) has advanced vehicle-integrated PV (VIPV) technology by installing solar cells directly onto a standard sheet-metal car hood. The researchers placed a 115 W prototype array on the hood of a Volkswagen with a specialized lamination process.

Sono Motors has equipped its first bus with its PV retrofit solution, featuring 16 semi-flexible rooftop solar modules to feed 1.4 kW of output into the vehicle’s battery system.

Researchers in Spain assembled an experimental solar simulator for vehicle-integrated and curved solar panels. They found that the measurements of the short-circuit current of the cells followed the ideal cosine response of the curvature with differences lower than 0.5%.