Solar Energy Perspectives - IEA

Chapter 5: Industry and transport
half the total tonne-kilometres are in these middle-distance trips (500km), with an always
significant share of these distances run on highways. The potential thus represents more than
40% of oil consumption and CO 2 emissions of current road freight – depending on the share
of trips over 500 km long that can actually be transferred to rail.
Full electrification of the transport sector seems out of reach. Even if long-haul trucking can
be electrified, it seems impossible to electrify shipping and, above all, aviation. Some
amounts of biofuels or fossil fuels may need to be burnt in PHEVs, and even in EVs – vehicles
entirely moved by electricity – to produce heat. In transport using fossil fuel, most of the
energy in a vehicle is wasted as heat, so heating the vehicle’s interior and providing passenger
comfort is easy. With electric vehicles there is no waste heat. In winter, heating the cars’
interior may halve the range of some vehicles. Burning liquid fuels for heating the car, with
a much better efficiency than in the engine, could be a solution although carmakers fear that
this may dissuade potential clients. It is likely too that no attention has been paid thus far to
cars’ thermal performance, as so much wasted heat was available for free.
Photo 5.3 The experimental PV-run plane Solar Impulse flew for 26 hours
Source: First flight © Solar Impulse/Reuters/Christian Hartmann/Pool.
Photo 5.4 This 31-m demonstration boat is circumnavigating the globe,
powered only by its PV panels
Source: TURANOR © PlanetSolar.
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© OECD/IEA, 2011