With solar panels becoming cheap and ubiquitous, it's surprising that the automotive industry hasn't adopted them on a larger scale. Toyota has been among the pioneers, with the 2010 Prius featuring an integrated solar panel roof. It was mostly a gimmick, with the panel barely generating enough electricity to run the ventilation fan. Since then, several car models, including the Nissan Leaf, Fisker Ocean, and the Toyota bZ4X, have been offered with optional solar panels.
While some of them have been capable enough to add some charge to the battery, they have not been very popular, mostly due to high costs. However, a leading automotive glass supplier claims that it has integrated photovoltaic cells in regular glass roofs popular with electric vehicles. Fuyao Glass is one of the largest glass producers in the world and is an OEM supplier for various carmakers, including BYD, Tesla, and Volkswagen.
Fuyao Glass announced that it is ready to mass-produce the solar glass roofs at reasonable costs. The manufacturer managed to embed solar cells within laminated automotive glass, allowing sunlight to be converted into electricity. Although the company hasn't confirmed, several Chinese outlets wrote that the solar glass roof has been developed in partnership with BYD.
According to Chinese media, customers buying a BYD Han or BYD Tang could opt for a solar roof for a price of 8,000 yuan (about $1,200). Reports claim that the roof could generate up to 720 watts of electricity with a conversion efficiency of 23.2%. Fuyao declined to comment, citing confidentiality reasons, but it just announced a new solar sunroof category in its product catalog.
The company said that the solar roofs could generate 150 watts of power per square meter. Considering a total surface of about 2-3 square meters for a glass roof, the total power could be less than what Chinese news outlets claim. To be fair, the 150-watt/sqm power density is on the low side, considering that modern solar panels could go higher than 250 watts. However, since PV cells are integrated into the laminated glass roof in this case, efficiency is certainly much lower.
Fuyao Glass admits that this power level is only suitable to sustain the ventilation system, connected car functions, and dashcams. This basically rules out charging the battery, which requires higher power levels. However, the panels could support the vehicle's critical systems for a long time when parked, saving battery.
Solar panels could be a lot more useful, and even trickle charge the battery, potentially saving someone's life. Adventurer Sandro van Kuijck drove a Tesla Model X from the extreme North in Tuktoyuktuk, Canada, to the southern tip of the American continent in Ushuaia, Argentina, and a custom solar panel saved his life.
His 287-watt solar panels were not connected to the car's battery, but to an EcoFlow portable generator. The system still provided enough electricity to trickle charge and support the vehicle's critical functions when he ran out of battery in the Atacama Desert. While not enough to drive, the energy was enough to help Sandro survive until he could get out of that situation.
After his childhood dream of becoming a “tractor operator” didn’t pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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