Analysis of Climate Conditions upon Driving Distance of Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics‐Powered Vehicles

Abstract

The development of the vehicles powered by photovoltaic (PV) is desirable and very important for reducing CO2 emissions from the transport sector to realize a decarbonized society. Although long‐distance driving of vehicle‐integrated PV (VIPV)‐powered vehicles without electricity charging is expected in sunny regions, driving distance of VIPV‐powered vehicles is affected by climate conditions such as solar irradiation and outside temperature, and the power consumption of the air conditioners. In this article, analytical results for system efficiency of VIPV‐powered vehicles and the effects of usage of air conditioner are presented by using power losses estimated from the electric mileage by using the driving distance data for Toyota Prius and Nissan Van demonstration cars installed with high‐efficiency InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs three‐junction solar cell modules with a module efficiency of more than 30%. The potential of VIPV‐powered vehicles to be deployed in major cities in Japan and the world is also analyzed. Mild weather cities such as Miyazaki in Japan and Sydney in Australia are thought to have longer driving range even under usage of air conditioners. The other power losses for the VIPV such as temperature rise of VIPV modules and partial shading estimate the previous data and some reference as well as effects of usage of air‐conditioners are also discussed in this article.

Analysis for Effects of Temperature Rise of PV Modules upon Driving Distance of Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaic Electric Vehicles

“…Using the similar procedure described above, the effects of temperature rise of PV modules upon driving distance of Toyota Prius demonstration car (output power of 860 W and electric mileage EM of 9.35 km/kWh) and Nissan Van demonstration car (output power of 1,150 W and electric mileage EM of 6.6 km/kWh) were analyzed. The effect of air-conditioner usage is thought to cause such a difference in addition to the effects of temperature rise of VIPV modules as shown in our previous paper [34].…”