Enabling Solar-Powered Personal Electric Vehicles for Short Distance Travel: Study of the Efficiency of a Solar-Powered Golf Car

Abstract

Electric Vehicles (EVs) have been in increase in the market as a replacement for Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICVs). Although the alternative to fossil fuels is promising, in order for EVs to be completely clean and sustainable alternatives, electricity generation must come from power grids integrated with renewable energy sources [8]. However, renewable energy sources are unpredictable and intermitent, and thus dependent on a more reliable source of energy or on compensation by energy storage in the form of batteries [10]. Solar-powered electric vehicles are at a pioneer research stage and still limited by the efficiency of some of their parts, such as the solar panel, the motor, and the batteries. In this project, taken in collaboration with the CHAOS Lab, an EV has been converted to a fully solar-powered automobile, thus proving the feasibility of powering golf cars off the grid in Princeton University. The average consumption of the vehicle is of 61.5 Wh/km and a solar driving range of 75 km. Every additional passenger adds 9.9 Wh/km to the energy consumption. We believe that this efficiency could be improved by replacing lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion.