Modular solution for charging the batteries of electric bikes parked on public domain

Abstract

With the increase of pollution in urban areas, in the same time, within the majority of crowded cities, the circulation infrastructure for bicycles, trotters, mopeds, hover boards, etc. has been developed for both classic and electric versions, various models of street furniture for parking and protection being designed and built. To charge the batteries of the these electric vehicles we present within this paper a technical solution based on the use of renewable energy resources. The modular solution can be adapted to any type of street furniture designed as bicycle parking, regardless of the number of parking spaces, the modular system that is used being composed of photovoltaic panels placed on the roof and individual inverters for each panel. The configuration presented in this paper, equipped with six monocrystalline photovoltaic panels with a nominal output of 270 Wp and a total installed power of 1.6 kWp, provide the possibility of charging compact personal electric vehicles like bicycles/trotters/mopeds/ hover boards, etc., simultaneously, in the limit of the amount of energy converted by photovoltaic effect. The charging station is equipped with the same number of six state-of-the-art inverters, one for each photovoltaic panel. By performing Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm at photovoltaic (PV) module level, an increase in system efficiency by an average of 25% over the system lifetime can be achieved. The undesirable effects caused by the shading of photovoltaic panels, their improper orientation, the degree of dirtiness of the panel surfaces or the aging of the panels, are minimized because, unlike central inverters, the inverters used here are being attached to each PV module, they are working independently from the rest of the solar array and DC power is converted to AC power immediately. The concept of modularity, the state-of-the-art equipments that are used, the performance monitoring via Internet, makes the charging station for electric bicycles a product of a high technology level, highly competitive in the current global context that puts accent on the electric mobility area.