SMART SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION AND BATTERY CHARGING SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

With the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy systems, there is a growing demand for effective and environment-friendly technologies for charging batteries. Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies for EV charging applications owing to its environment-friendly and ubiquitous characteristics. But the traditional PV based battery charging system are facing several problems such as low energy utilization, inefficient charging of battery and fast degradation of battery when they are continuously charging. In the light of these challenges, this project has been come up with a Smart Photovoltaic Based Lithium-Ion Battery Charging System for Electric Vehicles using Adaptive Pulse-Ripple Current Control. The proposed system consists of photovoltaic (PV) array, two dual DC-DC boost converters, lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery banks, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controller and adaptive Pulse-Ripple Current (PRC) charging strategy. Maximum power generation from PV array is taken by MPPT controller under different solar irradiation conditions to utilize the available solar power efficiently. The adaptive PRC charging technique comprises of charging pulses and rest periods, which keeps the battery from overheating and cuts down on lithium plating to ultimately prolong the battery life. In addition, the dual-converter design allows the solar power to be used at all times, switching between charging different bank arrays according to their State of Charge (SOC), and so avoiding wasted energy when one bank is being charged while the other is resting. The system is simulated and studied in MATLAB/Simulink for various operating scenarios. The simulations show that the charging efficiency can be improved, the usage of solar energy can be increased, stress on the batteries can be reduced, thermal performance can be enhanced, and the lifetime of the battery can be extended using the proposed charging methods. The proposed charging system is intelligent, reliable and environmental friendly, which can be applied to the charging infrastructure of the future electric vehicles and renewable power generation systems.