PVeCarPort
As part of the energy transition, electromobility is considered an essential building block for a climate-friendly transformation of the transport sector. There are currently around 150,000 electric cars on Germany's roads. Around 20,000 charging stations and connections of various types already exist for charging electric cars. In order to establish electric mobility in Germany, the Federal Government is focusing on the expansion of the charging infrastructure in particular, in addition to purchase incentives through subsidies and other benefits. One way to further promote the expansion of public charging stations is to use sealed parking spaces for the construction of PV carports with charging connections. These enclosures are already being sold by several providers today. An intelligent and digital energy management system that connects and controls all system components is being developed in the PVeCarPort project.
Foto: photocase.de | Davis Sch
Foto: photocase.de
Project
In the PVeCarport project, a team of engineers at the Solar Institute Jülich is developing a digitalised photovoltaic energy carport system for large-scale parking spaces. The focus is on dual parking space utilisation to couple the electricity sector with electromobility. The project work started at the end of 2019. The project duration is three years. The overall goal of the project is to develop an innovative business model that unites the interests of vehicle owners, parking space owners and grid operators. Based on this, a solution for the control and load management of the photovoltaic energy carport system will be developed and tested.
Innovation
The focus of the development work is on the networking of the subsystems and the development of a digital solution for the control and energy management of the enclosure. The technical system consists of a PV carport enclosure, several charging columns and stationary and mobile battery storage (batteries of the electric vehicles). The enclosure is not only to be used as a solar charging station for charging electric vehicles, but also as a virtual power plant for the provision of balancing energy through the possibility of bidirectional charging. This is to be made possible by means of the innovative control software and the entire charging process is to be optimised to such an extent that all system components can meet the complex requirements.
In addition, the individual wishes of the vehicle owners, such as the parking time or desired charging capacity, are to be incorporated into the system control via a mobile application programme (app).
