Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Open-source Photovoltaic - Electrical Vehicle Carport Designs
Version 1
: Received: 12 September 2022 / Approved: 13 September 2022 / Online: 13 September 2022 (10:41:43 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Vandewetering, N.; Hayibo, K.S.; Pearce, J.M. Open-Source Photovoltaic—Electrical Vehicle Carport Designs. Technologies 2022, 10, 114. Vandewetering, N.; Hayibo, K.S.; Pearce, J.M. Open-Source Photovoltaic—Electrical Vehicle Carport Designs. Technologies 2022, 10, 114.
Abstract
Solar powering the increasing fleet of electrical vehicles (EV) demands more surface area than may be available for photovoltaic (PV) powered buildings. Parking lot solar canopies can provide the needed area to charge EVs, but are substantially costlier than roof- or ground-mounted PV systems. To provide a lower-cost PV parking lot canopy to supply EV charging beneath them, this study provides a full mechanical and economic analysis on three novel PV canopy systems: (1) exclusively wood, single parking spot spanning system, (2) wood and aluminum double parking spot spanning system, and (3) wood and aluminum cantilevered system for curbside parking. All systems can be scalable to any amount of EV parking spots. The complete designs and bill of materials (BOM) of the canopies are provided along with basic instructions and are released with an open source license that will enable anyone to fabricate them. The results found single-span systems have cost savings of 82%-85%, double-span systems save 43%-50%, and cantilevered systems save 31%-40%. In the first operation year, the PV canopies can provide 157% of energy needed to charge the least efficient EV currently on the market if it is driven the average driving distance in London ON, Canada.
Keywords
open-source; photovoltaic; mechanical design; electric vehicle; solar energy; solar carport; electric vehicle charging station
Subject
Engineering, Civil Engineering
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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