Analysis for Solar Coverage and CO2 Emission Reduction of Photovoltaic-powered Vehicles

Photovoltaic (PV)-powered vehicles are expected to play a critical role in a future carbon neutrality society because it has been reported that the vehicle integrated PVs (VIPVs) have great ability to reduce CO2 emission from the transport sector. Development of high-efficiency solar cell modules is very important due to the limited installable area of PV on vehicle exterior. This paper presents the importance of developing high-efficiency solar cell modules for PV-powered vehicles and test driving data of the Toyota Prius demonstration car installed with high-efficiency III-V compound triple-junction solar cell module with an efficiency of more than 30%. Average daily driving distance by VIPV of 17.0km under the global horizontal irradiance of 4.0 kWh/m2/day and 62% CO2 emission reduction from passenger cars in Japan are demonstrated. Analytical results for effectiveness of high-efficiency solar cell modules from the point-views of PV-powered driving distance and reduction in CO2 emission are also presented. The PV usage is shown to be very effective for heavy vehicles with significant CO2 emission reduction of 6–10 t-CO2-eq/year in the case of trailer and 1–3 t-CO2-eq/year in the case of truck.