Design, Operation, Control, and Economics of a Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Automotive Applications
Date
2015-06-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI AG
Abstract
Meeting rapidly growing global energy demand—without producing greenhouse
gases or further diminishing the availability of non-renewable resources—requires the
development of affordable low-emission renewable energy systems. Here, we develop a
hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for automotive applications—specifically,
a roof-installed photovoltaic (PV) array combined with a PEM fuel cell/NiCd battery bus
currently operating shuttle routes on the University of Delaware campus. The system’s
overall operating objectives—meeting the total power demand of the bus and maintaining
the desired state of charge (SOC) of the NiCd battery—are achieved with appropriately
designed controllers: a logic-based “algebraic controller” and a standard PI controller.
The design, implementation, and performance of the hybrid system are demonstrated via
simulation of real shuttle runs under various operating conditions. The results show that
both control strategies perform equally well in enabling the HRES to meet its objectives
under typical operating conditions, and under sudden cloud cover conditions; however,
at consistently high bus speeds, battery SOC maintenance is better, and the system consumes
less hydrogen, with PI control. An economic analysis of the PV investment necessary to
realize the HRES design objectives indicates a return on investment of approximately 30%
(a slight, but nonetheless positive, ~$550 profit over the bus lifetime) in Newark, DE, establishing the economic viability of the proposed addition of a PV array to the existing
University of Delaware fuel cell/battery bus.
Description
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Citation
Whiteman, Zachary S., et al. "Design, Operation, Control, and Economics of a Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Automotive Applications." Processes 3.2 (2015): 452-470.