The European project SOLAR-MOVE has officially begun with the objective of accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles by integrating advanced photovoltaic solutions that reduce their dependency on the power grid. The kick-off meeting is held in Ixelles (Belgium) on November the 21^st, 2025.

The initiative focuses on developing Vehicle Integrated Photovoltaic (VIPV) and photovoltaic-based charging (ePIPV) technologies suitable for urban environments, residential and service buildings, public transportation systems and highway infrastructures.

The project aims to demonstrate that VIPV solutions can extend the daily driving range of electric vehicles by up to ten kilometres, reduce energy supplied by the grid by up to fifty percent depending on the scenario, and offer economically viable results that encourage large-scale implementation.

The project has a total budget of 8.25M€ and will run for 3 and a half years. The consortium is formed of 34 partners from 16 countries including INESC ID from Portugal (leader), IREC, DTU, and LIST – Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, among many others. A consortium is collaborating to design, develop and test new VIPV systems, digital optimisation tools and full-scale demonstrators. These will be deployed in real operation across Europe through pilots in Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Albania and Slovenia, combining heavy-duty vehicles, waste-collection services, public buses, last-mile delivery fleets, motorhomes and a variety of photovoltaic-powered charging infrastructures.

Josh Eichman, head of the Energy Systems Integration group at IREC, coordinated the participation of IREC in this project, which focuses on exploring the opportunity and impacts on the electrical grid from integrating VIPV, bidirectional vehicles and ePIPV solutions with verification in the Albanian demonstration. IREC also supports the environmental impacts and Lifecycle assessment to understand the potential environmental advantage of VIPV.

The outcomes of SOLAR-MOVE are expected to support new policy recommendations, facilitate municipal procurement processes and contribute to regulatory frameworks and incentive schemes that enable widespread deployment of these technologies.

Link to cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101235635

Acknowledgements: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the grating authority can be held responsible for them.