The solar car promise

Powered by the light of the sun, solar cars offer the potential to significantly reduce pollution and carbon emissions from our roads and provide a clean and sustainable way to get around. Solar powered cars have been in existence for solar car racing for decades but making them a commercially viable option to serve as the family car has proven more challenging.

While a number of companies have tried and failed to get solar cars commercialized, more recent attempts are showing more promise. US company Aptera recently announced it had raised over USD 33 million to fund the initial stages of production for its solar electric vehicle, equipped with 700 watts of solar cells and able to drive over 600 kms on a single charge. Already, more than 46 000 reservations have been made, though it is not clear when it will be available.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the Puzzle van, a tiny electric van using solar panels to charge its battery, was unveiled late last year, and is due to be available for purchase from 2025.

In order for the market for solar cars to truly take off, the quality, performance and durability of the solar panels used needs to be assured.

IEC International Standards provide internationally agreed specifications and guidelines to ensure the quality, safety and efficiency of products, services and systems. Conformity assessment determines whether a product, service or process complies with specified standards. Standardization also provides a common language and framework fostering interoperability, efficiency, safety and overall reliability.

IEC TC 82: Solar photovoltaic energy systems, produces international standards enabling systems to convert solar power into electrical energy. These include the 14-part IEC 60904 series of standards, which covers all the requirements and measurements of photovoltaic (PV) devices and their components.

Recognizing the need for specific guidance documents in this area, the committee has formed a project team, IEC TC 82 PT 600, for vehicle integrated photovoltaic systems (VIPV) to develop two new technical reports in this area.

We spoke to the Convenor of the project team in the latest issue of e-tech. Read more.