Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaics (VIPV) for Sustainable Airports: A Flexible Framework for Performance Assessment

Airports are among the most energy-intensive infrastructures, and the decarbonization of ground operations is essential to achieving sustainable aviation goals. Vehicle-integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) offer a promising strategy to complement electrification by enabling on-board renewable generation. While previous studies have mainly focused on fixed PV installations such as rooftops or carports, the potential of VIPV in airports has been largely overlooked, and no structured methodology has been established to investigate it. This study addresses this gap by proposing a two-scenario framework for assessing VIPV performance. The first scenario, termed the Generalized Approach, estimates annual energy production based on irradiance data, vehicle surface area, and driving-to-standby ratios. The second scenario, termed the Data-Driven Approach, incorporates detailed GPS-based driving data to capture the dynamic effects of orientation, speed, and operating conditions. Applied to European and Middle Eastern airports, the framework showed that VIPV could cover 1,700–5,500 km/year for buses, 650–5,000 km/year for minibuses, and 840–6,180 km/year for luggage tractors, with avoided emissions strongly influenced by local grid intensity. Grid parity analysis indicated favorable conditions in sunny, high-cost electricity markets. The framework is transferable to other VIPV applications and provides a practical tool for evaluating their technical, environmental, and economic potential.