This report builds on PVPS Task 17’s “State-of-the-Art and Expected Benefits of PV-Powered Vehicles,” offering a detailed look into the advancing field of VIPV technology. It features insights from a survey of 110 global experts by TNO, highlighting the crucial factors pushing VIPV from niche to mainstream.
The main authors have identified the following 3 Key Takeaways from the report:
- Crystalline silicon (c-Si) stands as the dominant technology in VIPV currently. The growth of tandem technology is to be expected in the future. Notably, there is a clear preference for back contact technology with no visible metal.
- Efficiency, kilometers per year (km/year), and range extension emerge as the most crucial system properties for VIPV. The report underscores the paramount importance of these factors, alongside the significant benefit of reducing the need for charging.
- While current system costs range between 2-5 USD/Wp, experts anticipate a drop to less than 1 USD/Wp. However, the report identifies the complexity of manufacture as the most substantial technical bottleneck hindering the wider adoption of VIPV technology.
