Conference name - «XII International Scientific and Practical Conference

«Current challenges, trends and transformations»

Section name – Technical Sciences

APPLICATION OF SOLAR PANELS IN ELECTRIC

VEHICLES

Khalilov Nasib,
Bachelor Student,
Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University,
khalilov.nasib@mail.ru

The future of the automobile industry is electric. Every year electric cars are
getting better and cheaper and every year more and more consumer are purchasing
electric cars. Depending on where you live, you likely see many electric cars every
day. In order to stop negative effects of duel cars, the Europian comission is planning
to ban diesel and gas cars in Europe by 2035. For that reason, manufacturers should
use modern and efficient technology to improve electric cars.
It is possible to charge electric cars via charging stations. For instance, Ford
Mustang Mach-E with a standard range battery takes 38 minutes to charge from 10%
to 80% using a 150-kilowatt EV charger. But what if the electric car runs out of
energy where there isn’t any charging stations or even worse electricity in that area?
Well, for such an occasion, only possible solution is using devices that are considered
third party devices, such as generators, portable solar panels etc.

Figure 1. Portable solar panels

 However, these devices merely have 20 % efficiency. And after charging cars, it
is possible drive to somewhere just couple kilometers. Besides, you are not able to
drive the car while it’s charging. In short it would be waste of time unless it’s worst-
case scenario.
But if top glass of the car such as Ford Mustang Mach E, is covered with
integrated solar panels, we can recharge the car while driving. In addition, solar panel
glasses make the car look better as carbon fiber parts does. On the other hand, if
owner of the electric doesn’t like the solar panel glasses, they use it their transparent
version.

Figure 2. Integrated solar panels

The dimensions of Ford Mustang Mach E are about 4.7*1.8 meters. It gives us
approximately 8.5 square meters of solar panel. In direct sunlight, it can collect
around 8 kW of energy. However, since Thermodynamics effects the efficiency, the
panel can only get 20% efficiency. It means 1.6 kW energy can be obtained with
normal solar cells in an hour. With 5 hours of sunny weather, we can get 8 kWh
battery charge per day. The battery of the Ford Mustang Mach E performance has an
estimated total capacity of 98.7 kWh. With simple calculation, only 8% of the battery
can be stored from solar cells and it is equal to 36 kilometers of range.
Innovators at Glenn Research Center of NASA have developed high - efficient (H
-E) solar cells which have almost 40% efficiency. These solar panels are more
common due to their affordable price, easy to manufacture and environmentally
friendly. If these solar panels are applied to electric cars in the future, 16 kWh battery
charge can be obtained in good weather condition, and it makes 30 kilometers of
range per day at best.
 Figure 3. H – E solar panels by NASA

Table 1.
Comparison of normal and NASA H – E solar panels for Ford
Normal solar panel Nasa H-E solar panel
Efficiency 20% 40%
Energy (daily) 4 kWh 8 kWh
Range (daily) 15 kilometers 30 kilometers

As mentioned earlier, some drivers would prefer transparent glasses rather than
solar panel glasses. Solution to this issue, we can apply a laminated windshield in
which thin Solar cells are sand wiched between the glass layer, to the cars. The solar
cell is electrically connected to a vehicle battery to provide recharging current to the
battery from the electrical current generated by the solar cells. The solar cells may be
formed of dendrite solar cells arranged in flexible strings. These solar cell strings
may be positioned in the windshield proximate to an edge of the windshield and
superimposed over windshield tinting or darkened border areas of the windshield.

Figure 3. Solar cell laminated in vehicle windshield

 The principle of operation of the solar control system, the control device of the
generated energy and the electrical circuit of the control system were analyzed.
Several methods have been identified for the management of energy produced in
solar power plants, a visual control device has been created and installed for the
proper distribution of energy [3, 5, 7].

References:
1. https://www.inverter.com/portable-solar-panel-and-electric-car
2. https://www.siouxfallsford.com/blog/2022/april/21/2022-mustang-mach-e-
performance-features-charge-time.htm#:~:text=You%20can%20install%20the
%20Ford,28%20miles%20per%20charging%20hour.
3. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1112349_transparent-solar-cells-to-let-
audi-capture-energy-from-glass-roofs
4. https://ev-database.uk/car/1754/Ford-Mustang-Mach-E-ER-RWD
5. https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LEW-TOPS-50
6. https://www.quora.com/How-does-adding-solar-panels-onto-cars-work
7. https://x3energy.net/vse-x3-generator-solar-charging-system/
8. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/82/2e/4a/9b2d3a5337f166/
US5602457.pdf