Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Ryobi Group have unveiled a solar power assisted bus to commemorate Ryobi’s 100th anniversary.
The jointly developed "Solarve" (short for Solar Vehicle) is the world’s first public transport bus equipped with solar panels.
Sanyo Amorton and Sanyo HIT solar panels mounted on the roof of the bus will provide electricity to internal LED’s for up to 9 hours of continuous lighting. The buses are expected to begin service in Okayama City in Southern Japan from the beginning of next month.
The Sanyo HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar panel is a hybrid module consisting of a thin monocrystalline silicon wafer encased in amorphous silicon layers. Sanyo states a HIT cell efficiency of up to 20.2% and an overall module efficiency of over 17.7%.
The Sanyo HIT solar panel was the first hybrid solar module available on the Australian market and is a popular choice in home solar power systems; not only for its high efficiency, but small footprint that allows for more solar energy to be generated from a house’s roof space area.
Sanyo’s Amorton solar cells are thin, light and flexible amorphous cells fabricated on plastic film and are widely used on solar watches, calculators, thermometers and battery chargers. Amorton uses silane as its source gas and is fabricated using a plasma CVD method.
