Electric Vehicles

Sonnenwagen Aachen, a student team from RWTH Aachen University in Germany, secured second and third place at the iLumen European Solar Challenge 2024, sharing the podium with Belgium’s KU Leuven team, which took first place.

The allure of the open road is strong in the United States, where highways can snake through breathtaking landscapes. Recreational vehicles (RVs) make adventuring easy but powering portable homes with diesel generators is a poor solution for today’s travelers. Briter Products President Avanti Lalwani tells pv magazine how her company is putting solar on wheels.

United Kingdom-based 3ti Energy Hubs has launched a portable electric vehicle charging station for 12 cars that it delivers to commercial and industrial sites where demand exceeds supply.

The battery industry is experiencing a seismic shift with advancements in prismatic cell technology, led by companies like Cornex, which promise to reshape energy storage solutions.

Norway-based Evert said its new solution can simplify installing solar PV, energy management, and electric vehicle charging by combining multiple devices into one unit bundled with software. It is made for the European residential and commercial markets, and expected to be available in mid 2025.

Lithuania-based Soliport has built what it claims to be the largest solar carport in the Baltic states. The 250 kW system is connected to 44 electric vehicle charging points and injects only a small portion of the electricity it generates into the grid.

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE have tested glass fiber-reinforced polymer as a front cover material vehicle integrated PV modules, finding that it has the potential to reduce weight by 44% to 74 % compared to conventional glass-covered modules. Experimental devices withstood hail tests, avoiding cell cracking after impact.

Austrian researchers developed a model to quantify the benefits of vehicle integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) on the energy needs of three different sizes of electric vehicle in the city of Graz, Austria, particularly the effect on battery energy and vehicle mileage.

Researchers in Pakistan have tested several configurations of an offgrid PV-hydrogen system intended to power EV chargers. The system achieved the lowest levelized cost of electricity when it was combined with battery storage.

China’s Livoltek says it has developed 120 kW electric-vehicle chargers with 140 kW input and a 100 kWh LFP battery, supporting the CHAdeMO, GB/T, CCS1, and CCS2 standards.