Yield Potential of Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics on Commercial Trucks and Vans

To understand the potential of Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics (VIPV) on commercial trucks and vans within Europe, we investigate five use cases: A) parcel delivery van, B) rural delivery truck, C) long haul, D) trailer, E) trailer with battery; we consider the European cities of Stockholm, Freiburg and Seville. For this, we first performed a vehicle geometry analysis in which we determined the potential to integrate photovoltaics on typical vehicle types with a module efficiency of 21%. Based on Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) datasets and location dependent conversion efficiencies we perform a yield calculation and estimate the final solar yield. A key finding is that the self-consumption during standby charging is a critical parameter in the feasibility of VIPV systems and needs to be minimized. We compute the corresponding annual solar range and find significant potential in the EU for the different use cases: A) 6637 to 11450 km, B) 3084 to 5272 km, C) 4828 to 8173 km, D) 763 to 1424 km, E) 4791 to 8134 km, depending on the city and assumed standby charging losses. Additionally, we perform a break-even analysis and find that irradiation, electricity prices, and the vehicle charging efficiency, are highly critical factors that impact the profitability of VIPV systems. Today VIPV is already profitable in Freiburg and Seville and can achieve payback times of 3,4 years for (B) and (C) in Seville and in Freiburg of 4,0 years for (B) and (C) in Stockholm within 6,9 (B) and 7,0 (C) years when mass production is achieved.