If there is anything I would like to have more than an electric car, it is a solar powered EV. I mean, plugging in to the grid is a perfectly reasonable technical solution, but how is that different from a glorified golf cart?
I want a car that recharges simply by sitting or driving in the sun light. No plug in, no fuel needed. Just basking like a cat. Or a dragon.
There are EV's with PV on the roof, but few commercial models to buy.
As Sarah Wells puts it, "Where Are All the Solar-Powered Cars?" [3]
To date, PV on the vehicle itself can't provide enough power to keep an EV charged. But with current technology car top PV could reduce plug in time and boost range between charges. So, instead of plugging in once per week, maybe twice per month.
From the point of view of PV, the challenge is that cars are heavy and inefficient beasts, especially passenger cars with limited payloads. (Thousands of kg of vehicle to haul around one or two people? While dragging around luxury seating, lighting, and entertainment goop; plus flashy styling; solely for the comfort and ego of the owner?)
Even so, as PV becomes more efficient and lighter, it will become ever more usable onboard vehicles.
But, how much sunlight will vehicles actually be able to harvest? Unlike static installations, cars move around, going in and out of the sun, and sitting at different angles. Even assuming sunny weather, an EV is going to have quite a varied exposure.
Hello, tree lined streets and indoor parking! Heck, I deliberately try to park my vehicle in the shade, to protect it from the sun. Just how much sunlight can we expect?
This fall, a team of European researchers report on a study of the potential solar power for EVs in 100 cities [1]. In particular, they model the effects of shadowing—trees and tall buildings—as well as the overall sunlight.
The bad news is that it's not sunny all the time everywhere. The biggest boost is available in sunny parts of the world, including Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. And some places have long, dark winters, and long periods of overcast.
The other bad news is that shadowing generally reduces the boost by 25% or so.
The good news is that on average, and depending where you are, enough sunlight is available on city streets to increase EV range and, to cut charges in half.
So, yeah. It's definitely technically feasible.
Granted, it's marginal in many places (the Portuguese co-auther will have better results in Lisbon than the Parisian co-author).
I'm not sure exactly what the economics will be, because I have no idea what charging is going to cost, or what car top PV will cost. But, assuming the prices drop with mass uptake, this might well be a common feature on EVs.
Neat.
- Miguel Centeno Brito, Rodrigo Amaro e Silva, David Pera, Ivo Costa, and Dmitri Boutov, Effect of urban shadowing on the potential of solar-powered vehicles. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, n/a (n/a) 2023/09/10 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3737
- Shreyas Maitreya, Himani Singh Dangi, Nitesh Singh Naruka, and Priyanka Paliwal. Analysis of Solar Powered Electric Vehicles. In 2021 IEEE 2nd International Conference On Electrical Power and Energy Systems (ICEPES), 2021, 1-4. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9699596
- Sarah Wells, Where Are All the Solar-Powered Cars?, in IEEE Spectrum - Transportation, October 11, 2023. https://spectrum.ieee.org/solar-powered-cars
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