Feasibility study and design of a commercially viable solar car

Abstract

With the volatile pricing of the crude oil, dropping heavily this year, the rise in the global temperature to alarming levels and the upscaling of the PV industry, there has been shift by the policy makers, researchers and industries to integrate renewable energy to generate electricity and look for renewable energy transportation system such as taxi, private car and buses. RAK Research and Innovation center (RAKRIC) being one of the leading research center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have created its own network for producing 59kWp green energy [1]. Keeping the trend towards the growing demand for green transportation, the authors try to explore the feasibility of developing a solar car as an alternative for traditional, gasoline powered cars. In this paper, the authors explore the type of solar cars developed till date and based on the input, try to come up with our design for the commercially viable solar car. This paper also discusses how solar energy can be used for the purpose of transportation. UAE is one of those countries in MENA region with abundance of sunlight.