Recently, BYD unveiled solar panoramic sunroof technology, a groundbreaking innovation that allows the vehicle to generate electricity while driving by installing high-efficiency solar panels on the roof. Even Musk retweeted the news and expressed great concern.
Yes, people with a little common sense know that photovoltaic is a good thing, but why is there no car company doing it?
Are photovoltaic panels too expensive? Not really.
Photovoltaic panels used to be really expensive in Europe and the United States, selling for 5,000 to 10,000 yuan per square meter, but now China has hit the minimum of 200 yuan per square meter.
In the past, solar energy was not used in cars, and the key to the problem was two aspects
First, in order to reduce the wind resistance, the car is streamlined, the photovoltaic panels are flat, and the car is ugly after installing the photovoltaic panels, not to mention the destruction of fluid mechanics.
If you look at the car below, it doesn't look awkward.
Second, can the photovoltaic panels be made into the shape of the car shell to replace the shell?
Like this.
This is not possible, because the strength and toughness of photovoltaic panels are not comparable to that of metal, and they will break when touched, which is unsafe.
Is there a solution? Yes, and that is flexible thin-film solar power, like the one below, that attaches directly to the car.
There are also cheaper ones, this semi-flexible solar film is as light and thin as cardboard, and you can get a set for dozens of dollars.
But they have a fatal problem – they are too short-lived. After a year and a half of use, the power generation efficiency of the film has deteriorated to a terrible extent.
It wasn't until February 2024 that the problem was solved by a Chinese solar company. Let's take a look at the news below.
The company believes that although crystalline silicon solar cells currently account for more than 95% of the solar cell market, they are difficult to apply to scenarios that require high material weight or flexibility, such as floating photovoltaics on the sea surface, curved roofs, satellites, spacecraft, and drones, and need to further reduce the weight of solar cells and improve battery flexibility.
So this time, the Chinese photovoltaic company released a solar power film thinner than paper, which has the characteristics of good flexibility, high power generation efficiency and long service life, and this product has created conditions for solar energy to get on the car. It doesn't need to change the body structure, it just sticks to the glass.
The company conducted an experiment by pasting this solar film on all the glass walls and windows of a building, and a building of more than 10,000 square meters generates 400,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, which can be reversely fed into the grid if it is not used up by itself. This building looks like this.
BYD's panoramic sunroof solar power generation technology is released after the company's technological breakthrough. BYD is the first to eat crabs, and there will definitely be car companies to follow suit. Because solar energy can make electric vehicles more energy-efficient, and more importantly, it provides an emergency means, if for some reason the electricity runs out and the car can't move, you don't need to tow it, just bask in the sun again.
Can this new technology be popular, is there a market, and what do you think about it?