Design and Development of Low Cost Solar Powered Automobile System for Eco-friendly Transportation

Solar car can be categorized as a ‘green vehicle’ with zero carbon emission. With an aim to develop low cost eco-friendly commuting system, a prototype of solar car has been designed and developed in the College of Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering, S.D. Agricultural University, S.K. Nagar, India. Engine and transmission system of anold petrol car were completely removed to refurbish it by Variable Drive Brushless Direct Current Motor (VBLDC), battery bank, control mechanism, sensors and solar modules. 48 V, 105 Ah Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) tubular thin plate battery bank was designed to operate a VBLDC motor of 1248 W capacity. 300 Wp polycrystalline solar array has been installed on the car rooftop to deliver synchronized power through charge controller. Results revealed thatin the course of insolation array of 5.0-6.00 kWh/m2, the solar modules were found to deliver consistent Voltage in between 71 V to 83 V, sufficient to charge battery bank reliably through the protection ofMaximum Power Point Tracker(MPPT) charge controller.Maximum instantaneous power values found were 224.84 W and 222.98 at corresponding voltage and current measurement of 49.2 V, 4.57 A and 48.9 V, 4.56A respectively. The battery bank took complete two days to achieve full charging status of 52.1 V when charged by solar array. Lab test showed that the car kept working for 2 hours and 57 minutes till the battery bank gets exhausted to 40.4 V. During field test the solar car performed for 1 hour and 50 minutes at an average speed of 30 km/h. Life Cycle Cost of solar car was found about five times less as compared to traditional petrol car.When compared with petrol car, average payback period and CO2 emission reduction were found to be about 02.32 years and 1679 kg/year.