Solar Thermal Electric Car Charging Station

Team Members Brad Engel Michael Nesteroff Jake Wither

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Outline
Current Energy Situation Renewable Energy for Transportation Residential Solar Thermal Charging Station Solar Collection System Thermal Energy Storage Expander for Electricity Generation Co-Generation Conclusion

Current Energy Situation

The U.S. consumes about 100 quadrillion BTUs of energy yearly which equals the amount of energy in 800,700,000,000 gallons of gasoline 85% of that energy is supplied by depleting reserves of fossil fuels Burning these fuels releases harmful pollutants such as CO2 and Nox into the atmosphere This air pollution contributes to global warming

EIA, U.S. Energy Consumption by Energy Source, 2004-2008 (July 2009)

Current Energy Situation

U.S. Petroleum Production Transportation and Consumption, 1970-2030*

Approximately 28% of all U.S. energy consumption is used for transportation (private and commercial) United States consumes more petroleum than it can produce leading to dependency on foreign imports To avoid energy dependence and environmental concerns, new sources of energy to power transportation must be explored
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*Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 28-2009 <cta.ornl.gov/data> Projections are from the Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2009

Renewable Energy for Transportation

Companies like General Motors have developed hybrid vehicles such as the Volt (right) to help reduce oil consumption Residential car charging stations are required in order to refuel the vehicles overnight and when not in use Ideally the charging station would be operated using renewable forms of energy to avoid increasing the demand for electricity from high pollutant coal-burning power plants Solar energy is a very attractive solution due to the enormous amounts of energy that the sun shines on the earth everyday
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2010 Volt Image: <http://www.acadiaforum.net/volt/volt_white.jpg>

Solar Energy

Photovoltaic Panels

Solar Thermal Collectors

Every hour the Sun provides Earth with enough energy to power human civilization for an entire year Two methods exist to harness this energy by converting it to electricity: Photovoltaic Panels and Concentrating Solar Thermal Photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly into electricity while solar thermal collects heat from the sun and uses it as the energy input for a power generation cycle
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PV Panels: <http://www.hgtv.ca/neworleans/images/eco_solar_panels.jpg> Solar Collectors: <http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/solar-thermal-power-1.jpg>

Advantages of Solar Thermal

Photovoltaic Cells Average Cost of Electricity (2005) * Energy Storage Co-Generation Capabilities CO2 Emission** NOx Emission** 18-31 Cents/kWh Electrical N/A 98-167 g/kWh 0.18-0.3 g/kWh Solar Thermal 11-15 Cents/kWh Electrical and Thermal Hot Water Tank Heating Space Heating 26-38 g/kWh 0.06-0.13 g/kWh

Electricity from solar thermal is currently less expensive than that from photovoltaic cells Solar thermal is more versatile in its energy storage and allows for co-generation where the waste heat is used for secondary purposes such as pre-heating water Including the manufacturing of the components, solar thermal technology emits less pollution than PV panels 7
Statistical Data Based on Large Scale Solar Thermal Plants in Current Operation * M.A. Schilling, M. Esmundo/Energy Policy 37 (2009) 1767-1781 **A.K. Akella et al./ Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 390-396

Electric Car Charging Station

Our project involves designing a system that utilizes solar thermal principles to create electricity to charge electric vehicles

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Heat energy from the sun will be gathered using solar collectors Energy is then stored in a tank using a heat exchanger

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The mechanical work of the expander runs an electrical generator The electricity can then be stored or used to charge the car directly
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Tank energy is used to elevate a fluid in a separate loop to a high pressure, high temperature state to be run though an expander

Solar Collection
Minimum temperature to run power cycle: 150C System electricity generation per day: 7-8 kWh
Electricity generation can be modified to supply the needs of any electric vehicle(s), this presentation uses the Chevy Volt as a benchmark

Evacuated Solar Tube Collector Low cost Is capable of reaching and exceeding the minimum desired temperature to run the Rankine power cycle High collection efficiency Can operate in cloudy conditions The cylindrical geometry allows the tubes to track the sun without a mobile device Stagnation Temperature 20 Tubes Aperture Area Manifold Max Pressure Length 20 Tubes Width
Images from Solartubes.com

360 C 1.861 m2 75 psi 79 67.9

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Data Table for Evacuated Tubes: http://www.siliconsolar.com/index.html, Silicon Solar Inc.

Collection Area Case Study

Typical roof size = 93 meters2 Using Californias average solar radiation of 6.5 kWh/ m2 a day, the plot below was produced showing the surface area required for the car charging station given a certain overall system efficiency The collection system can easily fit on an average roof if the system achieves an overall efficiency of 15% conversion of collected heat to electricity

Expected Charging Station Efficiency Coal Power Efficiency PV Cell Efficiency

High Tech Power Plant Efficiency

This plot predicts the Collection Area needed to supply 2500 kWh annually to charge a Chevy Volt in California.

Images from Solartubes.com

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How Evacuated Tubes Work

1. Solar radiation travels through the glass and vacuum layers striking the heat pipe 1 2. The heat pipe is coated black to absorb the thermal energy from the solar radiation 3. The vacuum layer surrounding the heat pipe is a near perfect insulator, trapping all collected heat 2 4. The evacuated tube is tilted at an angle to track the solar solstice and so the heat pipe can transfer heat 5. As the heat pipe warms up a liquid vaporizes inside the tube and rises to the top of the heat pipe
Image from: http://www.sunmaxxsolar.com/how-evacuated-tube-solar-collectors-work.php

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How Evacuated Tubes Work

1. The top of the heat pipe acts as a heat exchanger 2. A fluid passes through the exchanger and its temperature rises via convection with each consecutive heat pipe 3. The exiting fluid has reached its desired temperature needed to power the charging stations power cycle 4. The fluid is stored in a thermal tank
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Cool Fluid
Images from: http://www.sunmaxxsolar.com

Hot Fluid

Thermal Tank
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Thermal Storage System

A key feature of the charging station is the on-site thermal storage device The device will consist of a large, insulated tank filled with a heat transfer fluid (most likely an oil) To reduce costs, the tank will also be filled with stones because they can retain a relatively large amount of Heat Storage Tank heat The coils in the tank will allow the solar collectors to input energy while the power generation cycle extracts energy The device ensures a constant heat source so that the charging station can generate electricity when the sun is not shining
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Image Adapted from Kenyon Energy Active Solar Thermal Hot Water System <http://www.kenyonenergy.com/images/activesystem.gif>

Expander Design
Red: Intake Yellow: Exhaust Blue: Output shaft Device is currently designed to be about the size of a human fist Analysis is on-going to determine the output from a device this size with the expected inlet temperature and pressure Once the relationship is determined for this particular geometry, the device can be scaled to achieve the desired output
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Expansion Process
Step 1 (Intake): High temperature, high pressure fluid enters into purple compartment Step 2 (Expansion): Fluid expansion causes output shaft to rotate Step 3 (Exhaust): Low temperature, low pressure fluid exits purple compartment Step 4: Process repeats for blue compartment 1 2

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Pressure Ratio and System Efficiency

Typical overall efficiency of photovoltaic cells is ~12% Increasing the pressure ratio of our expander design can help our system surpass PV efficiency Efficiency can be further improved by increasing inlet temperature or inlet pressure

Expected Solar Thermal Efficiency Typical PV Efficiency

Assumptions Inlet Temp:150 C Expander Efficiency: 80% (typical turbine efficiency) Inlet Pressure: 10 Bar Working Fluid: Methanol

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Co-Generation
Scaling the solar thermal charging station to the residential level introduces the possibility of co-generation Conventional power generation wastes a large percentage of the fuels energy by not utilizing the low grade waste heat After the high pressure gas is run though the expander a large amount of energy still exists, but not at a high enough grade to run the expander to generate more electrical output Usually this energy is dumped into the atmosphere as waste heat using cooling towers (above)
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Cooling Tower Image: <http://www.usnews.com/dbimages/master/6303/FE_PR_080814nuclear.jpg>

Co-Generation
Because the car charging station will be located in close proximity to the home, the low grade heat from the expander can be utilized rather than wasted The energy can be used for space heating a home during cold months as well as preheating a hot water tank By harnessing this low grade heat, the overall efficiency of the station is increased and the total energy consumption of the owner will be decreased
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Winter House Image: <http://www.precisioncraft.com/image/Gallery/ext14-log_home.jpg> Hot Water Tanks Image: <http://www.alliedboilers.com/images/products/tanks.jpg>

Conclusions
The proposed system is capable of competing with established photovoltaic cell technology in terms of electrical generation efficiency The design has both thermal and electrical storage devices which allows charging to occur 24 hours a day Unlike PV cells, our system is multi-purpose using co-generation to increase the overall efficiency of the system by utilizing low grade heat for space heating and hot water heating The design is sustainable, providing consumers with clean energy from the sun for transportation and other residential needs while reducing dependence on depleting fossil fuels

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