Heavy-duty vehicles with solar panels as a regenerative power source

Abstract Road transportation represents more than a third of all CO 2 -producing sources on Earth, being the main producer of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nowadays, continuous development of technology has reduced fossil-fuel consumption by integrating clean energy sources as a range extender. Solar energy has the largest potential of all renewable energy sources worldwide. The photovoltaic and energy storage research fields have grown exponentially during the last decade and, forced by the current energy crisis, had a great contribution to the hybrid solar vehicles (HSV) industry. Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaics (VIPV) comply with requirements on vehicles aesthetics, and they convert solar energy into electric energy to supply the low-voltage and high-voltage battery packs onboard HSV. Heavy-load road transportation by commercial vehicles equipped with PV-integrated modules or retrofit installation will contribute to global decarbonization. A study is done on a configuration of a heavy-duty vehicle with its cuboid cargo body covered with solar panels and a regulated driving route during different weather conditions [3]. The energy management system is designed to maximize solar energy conversion in order to reduce fuel consumption and extend the vehicle’s total driving distance.