Design Consideration Regarding a Residential Renewable-Based Microgrid with EV Charging Station Capabilities
Electric Vehicles (EVs) will be a key component of sustainable e-transportation systems. It is important to provide a charging infrastructure for EVs. EVs are “zero” polluting and highly efficient, but these qualities are valid only if the EV is supplied from renewable energy sources (RES). In urban areas, there is a lot of unused space such as roofs of residential and enterprise buildings, roofs of parking lots, building facades, etc. In cities, the PV and small wind turbines RES should be able to supply EVs with clean energy. Such a solution has many advantages. In an EU-financed research project, the team developed a solution for a Residential Charging Station (RCS), the design solution being implemented with the equipment available on the market. In this paper, the design considerations and some challenges raised by it are presented. Improvements of the existing equipment to better suit future needs are further discussed. The proposed solution solves the matter optimally and the implementing it will offer future Smart Cities an RCS with public access with several useful properties.