This paper intends to study the feasibility about to use photovoltaic components in a car for energizing the compressor of an automotive air conditioning system.
For this, we compared the performance of two different photovoltaic components used for this purpose: photovoltaic modules applied in a rigid substrates and thin film, applied in a flexible substrates.
The study motivation are, while the photovoltaic air-conditioning is operating, to fuel saving, to increase the vehicle performance, to improve the greenhouse levels of gas emissions and to propose a new option of product, which is not available in the Brazilian market at this moment.
The evaluations showed that the most viable proposal is to use thin film instead of photovoltaic modules. The decisive factor was the financial economy during the use of a hypothetical photovoltaic air conditioning when applying photovoltaic modules showed negligible (US$ 14.40 savings/year) if compared to the same situation, however, using thin films, in addition the thin films are a better perceived quality, lower mass and lower investment acquisition.