HTWK research project is dedicated to determining ideal locations for solar power charging stations for electrified vehicles in public car parks
In December 2022, the Faculty of Engineering at HTWK Leipzig launched PVmCharge, a project that will make a significant contribution to expanding the infrastructure of solar charging stations for electrified transport. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of the mFund innovation initiative.
The low number of charging stations for e-cars and other electrified vehicles in public spaces is slowing down environmentally friendly mobility concepts in the long term. PVmCharge aims to enable the mobility transition by directly using photovoltaics to charge electrified vehicles in public car parks.
As part of the PVmCharge project, a forecasting tool is currently being developed with which the irradiation conditions for any public car park can be precisely predicted. The project is aiming for two time horizons: On the one hand, daily forecasts to optimise individual parking space selection for vehicles with integrated photovoltaics. On the other hand, long-term yield forecasts for car park locations will be developed. This will create a suitable basis for investment decisions by companies and local authorities regarding urban photovoltaics as well as for yield estimates for the concept of mobile photovoltaic-powered charging stations.
Using existing data (e.g. weather data, buildings, topography), the irradiation conditions, including possible shadows, are to be calculated for any car park locations. This is done on the basis of AI methods, in particular fuzzy classification, which can also be used to process fuzzy input variables. Furthermore, measurements of irradiance, homogeneity of radiation and migration of shadows will be carried out at selected car parks in the Central German region, the results of which will serve as a supplementary database and to validate the chosen approach.
About the mFUND funding programme of the BMDV
As part of the mFUND innovation initiative, the BMDV has been funding research and development projects relating to digital data-based applications for the mobility of the future since 2016. In addition to financial support, the mFUND supports networking between stakeholders from politics, business and research as well as access to the mCLOUD data portal with various event formats.
