Solar-powered off-grid charging station design for electric vehicles

Abstract

In today's world, the increase in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere, as well as the natural result of the global warming issue, have detrimental consequences. It is known that gas emissions such as CO2 should be reduced in order to reduce these effects. Internal combustion engines (ICE) that use fossil fuels play a major part in the release of these harmful emissions into the environment in today's transportation industry. For this reason, in order to achieve a cleaner environment, it is aimed to increase the number of Electric Vehicles (EVs) by completely removing fossil fuel vehicles from the market. Thus, it is expected that harmful gas emissions such as CO2 will reduce considerably and the impact of such hazardous GHG in the transportation industry will be minimal. However, it is known that as the number of EVs grows, the energy demand for the electricity grid will increase and some grid problems will occur. Morever, it is well recognized that as the number of EVs grows, so will the energy demand for the electricity grid, causing potential grid difficulties. This study proposes a clean, environmentally friendly, renewable EV charging station approach to overcome potential grid issues. This system comprises a renewable energy source Photovoltaic (PV) based, off-grid, EV charging model with its own storage system, in rural areas where there is no/insufficient electricity grid or where grid load needs to be minimized. This model is simulated in MATLAB, and the findings are presented graphically.