Platform for researching the conversion efficiency of solar energy into electricity for vehicles

The interest of companies of using unconventional energies (solar, wind, waves, hydroelectric, cattle etc.) has been accelerated in the current conditions of the energy crisis. The solar energy is the easiest one to be converted into electricity, which can be further used to generate mechanical work. In the automotive field, the Solar Electric Vehicles (SEVs) are in fact usual Electric Vehicles (EVs) for which the high-voltage battery pack used for traction is charged using a lot of photovoltaic (PV) cells mounted on the vehicle. The paper presents the experiments performed with non-polluting energy in the Automotive Green Technologies Laboratory within the CAMPUS Research Institute. A mobile testing platform was developed by installing two semi-flexible Photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of a medium capacity passenger vehicle available in laboratory, Dacia Logan 2. To charge a 12V battery, a single panel or two panels connected in parallel for higher currents are used. For a 24V battery two panels connected in series are used. The tested batteries were Lead-Acid and LiFePO4 chemistries. The performed measurements during charging enable us to derive the efficiency of the entire PV system. Finally, the block architecture for the Logan Solar Electric Vehicle (SEV) is proposed and the PV system requirements are derived.