Full solar car range developed

Thin-film solar expert Hanergy Holding Group has launched four full solar-powered vehicles in Beijing at a ceremony dubbed 'Disruptive innovations drive the future'.

The range is integrated with flexible, highly efficient thin-film solar cells and modules, delivering zero-emissions vehicles that use solar energy as a main source of driving force through a series of precise control and management systems, including photoelectric conversion, energy storage and an intelligent control system.

The vehicles acquire power directly from the sun and therefore do not depend on charging posts. This means 'distance per charge' is not a concern, which the company says makes zero charging possible for medium- and short-distance journeys. It asserts that this breaks the bottleneck of poor practicality found in previous solar-powered vehicles and that the new range can be commercialised.

Hanergy has additional signed a framework agreement with Foton Motor to cooperate in the development of clean energy buses.

Hanergy claims that the vehicle's user-friendly designs enable users to select and manage different travelling and weather modes in a real-time, mobile, networked and smart way. Users can select charging modes in accordance with varied weather conditions through apps on mobile devices. The vehicles are also equipped with ultrasonic cleaning technology for maintenance of the solar cells.

Flexible GaAs thin-film solar cells cover 3.5–7.5 m² of the vehicle, depending on the model. With 5–6 h of sunlight, the cells are able to generate 8–10 kWh of power a day, allowing it to travel about 80 km, equivalent to over 20,000 km annually, which satisfies the need of driving in a city under normal circumstances.

Under the mode of routine day use, the vehicles are able to charge themselves with clean solar energy while travelling. In the cases of weak sunlight or long-distance travel, the lithium batteries equipped in the vehicles can also get power from charging posts, enabling them to travel a maximum of 350 km per charge.

The R&D of the full solar power vehicles was done independently by Hanergy, which owns over 120 patents and proprietary intellectual property rights for them.