Hello. My name is Omid (LinkedIn) — What started as a project of passion, quickly turned into a full blown endeavor. Most countries lack the electrical infrastructure to support the charging of millions of electric vehicles. At the same time, solar panel prices are dropping at a dramatic rate, making them the ideal technology for most off-grid electrical applications. Perovskites and tandem cells are also increasing the conversion rate of solar cells at a staggering rate — making them ideal to charge our vehicles.

Future grid: Today, if every electric vehicle had a solar rooftop equivalent to 1,000 watts — it would significantly contribute to meeting the world's power needs and sustainability goals. Electric vehicles have the added benefit of containing a large battery, or power bank. If electric vehicles could charge under the sun, store the power, and provide power to a home at night, then much of the global energy needs can be resolved.

Electric vehicles are also parked 80% of the time, so it makes sense to use solar cells to slowly drip charge them. Slow charging is better for the lifecycle of most batteries compared to “supercharging”.

No centralization: On a human ethical level, if every person charged their electric vehicle with solar cells, then energy production would be decentralized. Decentralized energy production has many benefits — predominately aiding in the event of a disaster or catastrophic scenarios.

Decentralization of basic human needs is also a central tenet of mine. If each of the basic human needs of an individual were decentralized, then each person could innovate, develop arts, delve in a hobby, or waste their lives without becoming slaves to centralized systems.

Payback period & ROI: The payback period of a solar expandable array for an electric vehicle is about three years, while the lifetime of a ETFE coated flexible solar panel is about ten years. Besides the added benefit of enabling off-grid charging, aiding in disaster relief operations, cooling the cabin of an electric vehicle — a roof top solar array for electric vehicles is an investment that is estimated to return 3X to 5X.

Right to repair: DartSolar products will have their blueprints released to inspire a culture of DIY innovation and repairs. Locally repairing and innovating has many environmental, economical, and longevity benefits. With the advent of 3D printing, we aim to create a community of DIY engineers to not only repair products locally, but innovate and customize the expandable solar array to different vehicle makes and models.