Strategic Model for Charging a Fleet of Electric Vehicles with Energy from Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

The ever-growing number of electric vehicles requires increasing amounts of energy to charge their traction batteries. Electric vehicles are the most ecological when the energy for charging them comes from renewable energy sources. Obtaining electricity from renewable sources such as photovoltaic systems is also a way to reduce the operating costs of an electric vehicle. However, to produce cheap electricity from renewable energy sources, you first need to invest in the construction of a photovoltaic system. The article presents a strategic model for charging a fleet of electric vehicles with energy from photovoltaic systems. The model is useful for sizing a planned photovoltaic system to the energy needs of a vehicle fleet. It uses the Metalog family of probability distributions to determine the probability of producing a given amount of energy needed to power electric vehicle chargers. Using the model, it is possible to determine the percentage of energy from photovoltaic systems in the total energy needed to charge a vehicle fleet. The research was carried out on real data from an operating photovoltaic system with a peak power of 50 kWp. The approach presented in the strategic model takes into account the geographical and climatic context related to the location of the photovoltaic system. The model can be used for various renewable energy sources and different sizes of vehicle fleets with different electricity demands to charge their batteries. The presented model can be used to manage the energy produced both at the design stage of the photovoltaic system and during its operation.