Construction of the renewable energy eco-system: strategic distributions along the chain of “photovoltaics-energy storage-electric vehicles”

Abstract

The “photovoltaics (PV)-energy storage system-electric vehicles (EV)” industry is taken as an instance in this paper to depict the blueprint of the renewable energy eco-system: (1) As the headstream of the whole industry chain, clean energy source is first discussed. Taking full advantage of low cost in the photovoltaic lifetime, the highway PV plant is supposed to be a promising, cheap power supply for new energy vehicles, and to conduce to less traditional energy consumption and carbon emission. (2) Two-level energy storage systems, including power-grid energy storage and customer-side energy storage, would be established by developing novel energy-storage devices, high-capacity materials of EV batteries and standardization of battery manufacturing. Also, with the aid of “internet of things (IOT)”, a network of monitoring, maintenance, recycling and echelon utilization will be established to cover the EV batteries’ whole life. (3) As for the new energy vehicles, novel manufacturing standards will be formulated including modular design and production. Instead of the integrated battery modules, the exchanging mode will be applied to vehicle batteries, accompanying with the construction of the gas-station-like battery supply network, which provides power access and battery charging/exchanging/maintenance. In addition, it is also briefly described that hydrogen evolves from water electrolysis by utilizing surplus photovoltaic and wind power and serves as a significant supplement of the present electricity-dominant renewable energy industry. An ecology is hopefully formed through synergetically developing renewable energy supply, storage and applications in the following years. Thereafter, the energy consumption will be thoroughly changed via the construction of a fossil-fuel-independent new energy eco-system, supported mainly by renewable energy sources.