Effect of urban shadowing on the potential of solar‐powered vehicles

Abstract

Solar‐powered vehicles have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions, operational costs and charging frequency needs of electric vehicles. This potential will depend on the local solar irradiation but also shadowing conditions, a relevant issue for urban contexts. The potential of solar‐powered vehicles in the urban context is modelled for 100 cities across the world showing that the median solar extended driving range is 18 and 8 km/day/kWp for driving and parked vehicles, respectively. The most favourable geographies include Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia; nonetheless, solar‐powered mobility has relevant potential across the full sample, including China, Europe, North America and Australia.Highlights Urban VIPV potential is assessed for 100 cities across the world. Solar extended driving range varies between 11 and 29 km/day/kWp. Charging frequency ratio ranges from 0% to 80%, with a median of 57%. Urban shadowing reduces driving range by about 25% for driving vehicles.

The parking dilemma for solar-powered vehicles

“…The solar-extended driving range due to the integration of photovoltaics (PV) in EVs will depend on the installed capacity, which may range from 200 to 1200 Wp [ 5 ], and the available solar resource which, of course, will depend on the location, the time of the day and time of the year [ 6 ] as well as local shading [ 7 , 8 ]. The typical solar-extended driving range has been estimated to be of the order of 10–20 km/day for a wide variety of conditions [ 9 , 10 ].…”