Solar power, as a renewable and decentralized resource, offers a unique opportunity to complement grid electricity, reduce emissions, and enhance energy resilience. This paper investigates recent advancements in solar energy integration for transportation. Solar energy's foray into transportation began with small-scale applications, such as solar-powered lights and battery chargers. With increasing vehicle ownership, especially in developing countries, emissions from the sector are projected to grow substantially if left unchecked. Solar-powered transportation—vehicles that harness sunlight via photovoltaic (PV) panels to generate electricity for propulsion—is evolving from experimental prototypes to practical. Solar-powered transportation has the potential to offer significant benefits, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. This is more than any other sector of the economy, and more.
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