An Analysis of Solar Opportunity Recharging for Electrified Tactical Vehicles

The U.S. Army initiated a shift towards electrifying and hybridizing its tactical vehicle fleet in alignment with its Climate Strategy and global automotive trends. Survey findings indicate a general desire by soldiers for the ability to opportunity charge electrified tactical vehicles, especially in austere locations, with a focus on solar recharging. This study extracts, cleans, and analyzes geo-location data from a training exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA to identify the drive cycles for over 400 tactical vehicles. These drive cycles were then used to estimate the energy consumption per vehicle. The analysis then identifies how much energy can be provided by a 300 W solar blanket, deployed when a vehicle is stationary. The study found that the 300 W solar blanket under ideal conditions could offset approximately 10 percent of the energy required by the average vehicle. As such, solar energy has the potential to be useful for providing small amounts of energy that allow the vehicles to perform short-duration missions and provide power to accessories while idling.