Solar energised transport solution and customer preferences and opinions about alternative fuel vehicles - The case of Slovenia

Abstract

Authorities in Slovenia and other EU member states are confronted with problems of city transportation. Fossil-fuel based transport poses two chief problems - local and global pollution, and dwindling supplies and ever increasing costs. An elegant solution is to gradually replace the present automobile fleet with low emission vehicles. This article first explores the economics and practical viability of the provision of solar electricity for the charging of electric vehicles by installation of economical available PV modules and secondly the customer preferences and opinions about alternative low emission vehicles. Present estimates indicate that for the prevailing solar climate of Celje - a medium-sized Slovenian town - the cost would be only 2.11€ cents/kWh of generated solar electricity. Other results have also revealed that the most relevant factor for purchasing low emission vehicle is total vehicle price.