A Zero-Carbon Emission Solution for Urban Solar Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Solar electric vehicles (SEVs) are gradually becoming one of the most important ways of green commuting in cities. This paper investigates the energy management and forecasting issue for urban SEVs, aiming to achieve zero-carbon emission SEVs. A systematic energy management and forecasting method is proposed, which incorporates photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting, vehicle power consumption forecasting, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, based on weather data and various models. Based on this method, the annual performance of SEVs in Beijing and Kunming, China, is analyzed. Three scenarios are compared: (1) without PV; (2) with PV but without V2G; and (3) with both PV and V2G. The results show that in Beijing, compared with SEVs without V2G, when the daily travel distance is 10~12 km, SEVs with V2G can feed back to the grid PV power that makes up 48.8% of total generation and would otherwise be wasted. When the daily travel distance is 20~24 km, SEVs with V2G can overcome the limitations of continuous rainy days and power battery capacity to achieve zero-carbon travel. In addition, the influence of the efficiency of PV modules and the daily travel distance on the annual electricity savings of SEVs is analyzed. The results show that the annual electricity savings of SEVs without V2G are affected by both the daily travel distance and the efficiency of PV modules. In contrast, the annual electricity savings of SEVs with V2G are affected solely by the efficiency of PV modules.

Keywords: Solar electric vehicles (SEVs), Vehicle integrated photovoltaic (VIPV), Vehicle-to-grid (V2G), Photovoltaic efficiency