As part of the project, truck fleets driving throughout Europe were equipped with sensors in order to validate the research group's electricity yield models with real data
In the foreseeable future, it will mainly be vehicles with electric drives that will be driving on Europe's roads. Since the beginning of 2023, a consortium consisting of the Dutch organization for applied research TNO, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the solar technology suppliers for vehicles Sono Motors, Lightyear Layer and IM Efficiency has been investigating the extent to which the spread of vehicle-integrated photovoltaics would affect the electricity requirements of an electrified vehicle fleet. The European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) commissioned the "SolarMoves" project to better assess the impact of on-board solar power on the demand for e-charging infrastructure in the European Union.
From 2019 to 2023, Fraunhofer ISE already investigated the solar potential of German transport routes in the "PV2GO" project. Initial experience was gained in this project with the irradiation sensors that have now been further developed for SolarMoves. The sensors were installed on 57 private cars and 5 trucks belonging to a logistics company as part of a citizen science campaign. The scientists collected and evaluated more than 46 million data points over 460,000 kilometers over the course of a year. They came to the conclusion that the solar energy loss due to shading in a vehicle with integrated photovoltaics in the roof and hood and average driving behavior is around 35 percent. According to calculations, taking these losses into account, cars with integrated photovoltaics would produce around 460 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. With a consumption of 15 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers, an electric car would gain around 3,000 kilometers of range per year.
