Utilizing Rooftop Renewable Energy Potential for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Using Multi-Energy Hub Approach

Syed Taha Taqvi, Ali Almansoori (), Azadeh Maroufmashat and Ali Elkamel ()
Additional contact information
Syed Taha Taqvi: Chemical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Ali Almansoori: Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR), Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 2533, United Arab Emirates
Azadeh Maroufmashat: Chemical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Ali Elkamel: Chemical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-21

Abstract: Electric vehicles (EV) have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the current electric vehicle charging infrastructure utilizes electricity generated from non-renewable sources. In this study, the rooftop area of structures is analyzed to assess electricity that can be generated through solar- and wind-based technologies. Consequently, planning an electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is powered through ‘clean’ energy sources is presented. We developed an optimal modeling framework for the consideration of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) along with EV infrastructure. After examining the level of technology, a MATLAB image segmentation technique was used to assess the available rooftop area. In this study, two competitive objectives including the economic cost of the system and CO 2 emissions are considered. Three scenarios are examined to assess the potential of RET to meet the EV demand along with the Abu Dhabi city one while considering the life-cycle emission of RET and EV systems. When meeting only EV demand through Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), about 187 ktonnes CO 2 was reduced annually. On the other hand, the best economic option was still to utilize grid-connected electricity, yielding about 2.24 Mt CO 2 annually. In the scenario of meeting both 10% EV demand and all Abu Dhabi city electricity demand using RE, wind-based technology is only able to meet around 3%. Analysis carried out by studying EV penetration demonstrated the preference of using level 2 AC home chargers compared to other ones. When the EV penetration exceeds 25%, preference was observed for level 2 (AC public 3ϕ) chargers.

Keywords: renewable energy; rooftop; energy hub; multi-period optimization; energy planning; electric vehicle; charging infrastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9572/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9572/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:24:p:9572-:d:1006027

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().