ASOM: Alliance for Solar Mobility

From Brussels to Berlin:
Another successful year, another successful event!

đź—“ November 14, 2022    –   📖 7 min

Solar technology has been around since the 1950s and is one of the planet’s most important sources of renewable energy. In a single hour, the amount of power from the sun that strikes the Earth is more than the entire world consumes in a year (U.S. Department of Energy, 2015). However, when we think of solar, we think of solar panels as hard rigid structures that can be fitted on a roof of a house or a heavy commodity that can only exist in a solar park. What if this wasn’t the only case? What if they could be seamlessly integrated into different forms and shapes into vehicles – producing energy right where it’s needed?  

The Alliance for Solar Mobility (ASOM) is a partnership of like minded entities that have taken on this challenge to develop vehicle integrated photovoltaic solutions to leap into a sustainable and environmentally conscious future for mobility. Since its inception in 2020, ASOM has grown from 6 founding partners to over 25 partners in 2022. 

In an annual event, ASOM partners come together to celebrate their success. In doing so, ASOM advances its vision of becoming a collaborative platform for the solar mobility industry and promoting solar energy in the mobility sector. Last year, the ASOM annual event was held in Brussels, amid the hustle and bustle of the administrative capital of the European Union. Following in its footsteps, the 2022 ASOM annual event was held on October 4th in the startup hub of Europe and the German capital, Berlin. Harmoniously, with the city’s reputation as a hub for startups, technology, and innovation, the stage for the event was set at MotionLab Berlin. A Fab Lab in the heart of Berlin that fosters hard-tech innovation and is home to over 70 startups.

ASOM welcomed over 80 participants and visitors to the event – friends and supporters of solar mobility, while 22 of the ASOM partners joined the event to showcase their products and add value to the event.

Solar Moves – Annual ASOM Event

On a cloudy Tuesday in Berlin, ASOM partners met each other for an all day event with a two fold focus. The morning event, which was a closed event for ASOM partners, focused on workshops for each of the three working groups within ASOM, namely Research, Governmental Affairs and Marketing. While the afternoon event, which was open to externals, focused on keynote speeches, exhibitions, and networking. The event brought the opportunity to bring together prototypes and ViPV solutions, to network in several working groups and to jointly evaluate the most important topics and shared interests around policy, research, development and potentials concerning the solar mobility industry.

The morning event started with individual workshops in parallel for each of the ASOM working groups. These workshops were led by working group leads, Dr. Bonna Newman (TNO) for Research, Rosa Hogerzeil (Lightyear) for Governmental Affairs and Julia Mederle (Sono Motors) for Marketing. The workshops had over 60 participants who reflected on all the milestones ASOM has reached together so far, as well as defined the vision and goals for each working group going forward. After the workshop sessions, each working group presented the outcomes of the workshop to the rest of the participants. Below we have summarised the goals for 2023 as defined by each working group.

Research

  • Speakerships for focus topics: 6 speakers at ASOM working group meetings on focus topics for 2023 that include performance ratio and value of PV, best practices for PV integration, impact of solar mobility and EV infrastructure etc.
  • Publishing content: Contributions to Marketing working group to communicate solar mobility value and options for aesthetic solutions.
  • Standardisation: Define (some) global minimum requirement(s) for VIPV industry.

Governmental Affairs

  • Commonality: Build a common framework, story, and create alignment between partners to standardise our work in a way that every partner can use simple and concise narratives and frameworks in their daily activities
  • Collaboration: Share resources, develop tools, methodologies and materials that empower and support ASOM partners in their governmental affairs.
  • Stakeholder engagement:  Start conversations with policymakers and relevant stakeholders that will raise awareness, establish solar mobility as an essential actor in the mobility sector and explore possible incentives on national and european level.

Marketing

  • Social Media: Increase engagement on ASOM channels by publishing more updates from partners and progress in PV and mobility industries.
  • Events: Host several online events a year(webinars, panels discussions etc.). Also, establish presence at external events as ASOM and develop general Events strategy following the overall strategy
  • Content: Collect and produce content relevant to the solar mobility industry.
  • Website: rework planned with new sections, descriptions etc.

The afternoon event welcomed guests from politics, press, PV and automotive industry and was kicked off with a keynote from Ignacio Asenjo, policy officer at the European Commission who is working on the EU solar strategy. This followed presentations by Dr. Bonna Newman, ASOM Chair and program manager at the Dutch research institute TNO who introduced the external participants to ASOM and Lars Löhle, Head of Product at Sono Motors who elaborated on the concept of solar mobility from a practical perspective. This was followed by an exhibition and a networking session where external participants could interact first-hand with ASOM partners, see the revolutionary technology in action, and discuss relevant questions around solar mobility. 

The event featured vehicles such as the Lightyear One, the SunRider, the Infinite Mobility prototype, and body parts from Sono Motors‘ Sion. The high-tech solar-powered vehicles were accompanied by solar mobility experts and manufacturers from Exypnos, IM Efficiency, AGC, TNO, Fraunhofer ISE, Mito Solar and OPES solutions. It was impressive to see how the event brought attention and visibility to the rapidly growing solar mobility market in Europe by bringing together businesses, research institutes, political stakeholders, and press with the aim of fundamentally revolutionising mobility with solar solutions.

In a world beset by an energy and climate crisis, solar is the way forward. Not only is solar one of the cleanest forms of renewable energy, but it is now the cheapest electricity in history (IEA, 2020). In the EU, the mobility sector accounts for 31% of energy consumption and 24.6% of CO2 emissions, while 29% of overall EU energy production comes from renewables (EC Europa, 2018). The energy demand is only projected to rise, and the way we fulfill our energy demand is highly unsustainable. 

Europe was able to save as much as €29 billion during the current energy crisis thanks to solar energy (World Economic Forum, 2022). This kind of relief from cost-efficient and renewable resources is invaluable, to say the least. Incorporation of solar charging technology in mobility solutions can further contribute to this relief as it is more economically viable than EVs and ICEs. Dr. Bonna Newmann, Chairwoman of ASOM explains these benefits as follows: “Solar powered vehicles, where on-board solar cells produce electricity to power the vehicle or its electrical systems, are one of the best options for low or almost zero emission mobility. Solar mobility products have the potential to provide between 30-50% of the energy needed for electric transport by 2030, and can reduce the plug-in charging frequency by as much as 60% for an individual user”. 

All in all, an intrinsic need for clean mobility and the massive potential of solar is what keeps the midnight oil burning at ASOM partners. And in doing so, we come together to push our vision for a cleaner, greener future. 

Onwards and upwards, where the sun lies; the sky’s the limit!