Towards renewable public transport: Mining the performance of electric buses using solar-radiation as an auxiliary power source

Haoqian Chen, Yi Sui, Wen-long Shang, Rencheng Sun, Zhiheng Chen, Changying Wang, Chunjia Han, Yuqian Zhang and Haoran Zhang

Applied Energy, 2022, vol. 325, issue C, No S0306261922011308

Abstract: Transforming the road public transport to run on renewable energy is vital solution to achieve carbon neutral and net zero goals. This paper evaluates the potential of using solar radiation-generated electricity as an auxiliary power supplementary for the battery of electric buses, based on a developed framework that using publicly street-view panoramas, GPS trajectory data and DEM data as input parameters of solar radiation model. A case study of Qingdao, China with 547 bus routes, 28,661 street-view panoramas shows that the solar-radiation electricity generated at noon during the operation accounts for about one-fifth, one-eighth of the total electricity consumption of a bus traveling one kilometer in a sunny day and a cloudy day, respectively. Spatial variability shows significant solar-radiation power generation advantages in newly-launched areas and expressway. The solar power generated in a sunny day can make a bus half of passengers and with air conditioner off at least one extra trip in 2:1 replacement schedule, and nearly close to one extra trip in 4:3 replacement schedule. A correlated relation between the solar-radiation power generation benefit and the operation schedule of electric buses is observed, implying that the high cost of 2:1 replacement schedule for long-distance routes during summer or winter can be reduced. The proposed framework can help us evaluate and understand the feasibility of solar radiation-generated electricity energy of electric bus fleets covering the large-scale urban areas at different times, locations, and weather conditions, so as to support effective decisions at better planning of PV-integrated electric buses.

Keywords: Electric buses; Solar radiation-generated electricity; Spatio-temporal distribution; Operation schedule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119863

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