-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Rise of Data
Analytics is a given in this industry, but the threshold is changing. If you think you're too small to invest in analytics, you may need to reconsider. So how do you do analytics better? What are the new tools, and how do you get started?
Counterfeit Concerns
The distribution of counterfeit parts has become much more sophisticated in the past decade, and there's no reason to believe that trend is going to be stopping any time soon. What might crop up in the near future?
Solder Printing
In this issue, we turn a discerning eye to solder paste printing. As apertures shrink, and the requirement for multiple thicknesses of paste on the same board becomes more commonplace, consistently and accurately applying paste becomes ever more challenging.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Solar Vehicle Charging at Home
November 3, 2015 | Fraunhofer-GesellschaftEstimated reading time: 4 minutes
Owners of home photovoltaic systems will soon be able to make their households even more sustainable, because PV power is also suitable for charging personal electronic vehicles. A home energy management system created by Fraunhofer researchers incorporates electric vehicles into the household energy network and creates charging itineraries.
The house of the future is environmentally friendly, energy efficient and smart. Its inhabitants can utilize rooftop-generated PV energy not only for household consumption but also to charge their personal electric vehicle. This scenario has already become reality for a collection of row houses built according to the “Passive House” standard in the German city of Fellbach in Baden-Württemberg. The group of new homes was upgraded as part of the “Fellbach ZeroPlus” project to include electromobility enhancements as well as a comprehensive energy management system. The initiative is sponsored by the German Federal Government’s “Electric Mobility Showcase” program.
Fast charging stations and home energy management
“The large photovoltaic systems on the rooftops of the houses provide more power than the inhabitants consume over the long term. Surplus power can be fed into the public grid as well as be used for charging the household electric vehicle,” explains Dominik Noeren, a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg. To efficiently incorporate electromobility enhancements into the daily routines of the households, Noeren and his team designed a 22 kW fast charging station as well as a home energy management system (HEMS) for five of the seven homes. The Java-based HEMS software runs on small computers known as embedded systems. The HEMS collects data from the various electricity meters in the house, including those for the photovoltaic system, the electric vehicle, the heat pump, and general household power. The system displays the various power flows and informs the homeowners about their current power consumption at any time of the day. “They can see how much power is coming from either the public grid or the household solar system, and they can see where it is going – to the heat pump, household appliances, or the electric vehicle,” says Noeren.
Furthermore, the HEMS also forecasts solar intensity over the next 20 hours or so and provides users with information on how much solar power is available. An adaptive algorithm also computes anticipated household power loads for each quarter hour. Using this data, it is possible to determine how much PV power is available for the electric vehicle at any given time. “Electricity from the PV first goes to the house, and power that is not consumed there is stored in the electric vehicle battery. If there is still any electricity left over after that, it is fed into the public electricity grid,” explains Noeren.
During two years of field testing, an Android application was created using feedback from the homeowners. The HEMS app provides a visualization of all processes and electricity flows in real time, and gives solar intensity forecast readouts in graphical and numerical form. An adaptive algorithm works to optimize the use of the power generated by each household. Through the app, users can control the charging station as well as view the battery charge level and charging times of the electric vehicle. “These parameters are necessary in order to intelligently charge the electric vehicle,” says Noeren.
To create an ideal charging itinerary, the system must know the vehicle’s current battery charge level as well as its next planned departure time. The energy management system uses this information together with weather and consumption forecasts to estimate the flows through the household power network. It calculates how much electricity must be topped up, as well as which time periods are ideal for recharging the vehicle using the greatest possible proportion of household-produced solar energy.
“It is more cost effective to consume the self-generated solar electricity than to feed it into the public electricity grid,” says Noeren. The HEMS system helps consumers use data on driving times, solar intensity forecasts and current household energy consumption to synchronize electric vehicle charging times with rooftop energy production, so they can maximize the proportion of household-produced energy they use. This not only helps homeowners lower their costs, but it also goes a step closer towards realizing the ideal of low-CO2 homes and personal mobility. Maximizing the proportion of household-produced energy consumed helps unburden the public power grid while reducing household feed-in peaks to the grid.
The HEMS system is based on the Fraunhofer openMUC framework, which supports a wide variety of meters and devices. It offers modular expandability for integrating devices such as wireless Bluetooth or WLAN power outlets that can remotely activate and deactivate household appliances, or for integrating high-consumption items such as heat pumps. Two of the five households in the “Fellbach ZeroPlus” project have been successfully using a car-sharing variant of the system as part of a field test since mid-2014.
Suggested Items
L3Harris Electronic Warfare System Completes Safety of Flight Testing
11/08/2024 | L3 TechnologiesL3Harris Technologies has completed Safety of Flight (SOF) qualification on its Viper Shield™ all-digital electronic warfare (EW) suite for F-16 fighter jets. The company will provide the advanced capability to F-16 fleets for six international partners.
Meeting in Vienna: PCB Designers Invited to Engage in the Silicon to Systems Process
11/08/2024 | Michelle Te, IPC CommunityPCB designers interested in innovative ideas, technical prowess, relevance, quality, and doing their best work can now register for the inaugural Pan-European Electronics Design Conference (PEDC), Jan. 29-30, 2025, in Vienna, Austria.
SCHMID Group Unveils Revolutionary Hyper Loop System (HLS) for Precision Etching with Sustainable Technology
11/07/2024 | SCHMID GroupThe SCHMID Group is excited to introduce the Hyper Loop System (HLS), an innovative solution setting new standards in etching technology by combining high efficiency with sustainable benefits.
Attention Students: NASA Launches Power Systems Student Essay Contest
11/07/2024 | NASANASA’s fourth annual Power to Explore Student Challenge kicked off November 7, 2024. The science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) writing challenge invites kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions.
TTM’s Grand Opening in Malaysia
11/07/2024 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007When I last spoke with Tom Edman, president and CEO of TTM Technologies (TTM), he provided an update about the company’s new high-tech printed circuit board facility under construction in Syracuse, New York, and how the grand opening of a facility in Malaysia is informing TTM’s overall expansion efforts: a cutting-edge facility spread across 27 acres and providing roughly 1,000 jobs. Now, Tom provides more details about the new automated facility, its regional and global impact, and the importance of having both government and industry support.