Rutgers
Solar-to-Vehicle (S2V) Project
This website reports on a demonstration
project aimed at encouraging electric-vehicle day-time, work-place, charging in
conjunction with work-place solar-generated power.
Part of our emphasis is on quantifying the fraction of typical work-a-day
commuter driving that can be powered on electricity that is sourced from solar generation. This has economic
and green-house-gas impacts as well as providing information relevant to the
design of future electric and hybrid vehicles, their battery units, and the
furtherance of infrastructure to support plug-in vehicles.
This study started in December of 2012 and
now several years of usage data have been compiled.
Generally, we have found an ever-increasing
up-tick in EV and PHEV plug-in charging, to the point where our
infrastructure is not adequate. In response to this overload, we have forged a
community of EV-user sharing and communication to maximize the utilization of
the limited EV spots available on campus. If you are new to campus or a new EV
owner then please drop me an email and I’ll add you to our list-serve.
We hope that this information about charging availability,
electric usage models, green energy, and vehicle characteristics will be
useful.
Specific questions or inquiries can be sent to: dunbar.birnie@gmail.com
General
Background about this Study:
This study was initiated in reference to
an academic article that I published in 2009 that performed a simple estimate
of the power needed for commuter transit in relation to the area of a solar
panel associated with a parking-canopy solar structure. At that time most
PHEV’s were converted from normal hybrid – ie., they were
not production model vehicles. Now, with the advance of battery and vehicle
technology there are more choices and parameters for different real vehicles.
The source article analysis of this concept appears here: Journal of Power Sources, “Solar-to-Vehicle
(S2V) Systems for Powering Commuters of the Future”,
Volume 186, 539-542 (2009), by D. P. Birnie, III.
In
relation to transportation electrification and mobility then:
1) We have a very large solar parking structure (8 MegaWatts!!)
on the Livingston campus (shown below left), and one ground-based array already
generating about 1.4 MW.
2) We have 4 Plug-in
Vehicle Charging stations at the School of Engineering beside the CAIT Building
– and four more installed in conjunction with the solar parking structure over
on Livingston campus.
3) We have 2 Chevy Volts –
bought by the Rutgers EcoComplex, through a grant
provided by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
4) And, we have faculty in
several departments who are interested in solar, batteries, information systems,
algorithm optimization, vehicle design, alternative fuel public policy, and
many other topics. Many of these faculty are
networked through the Rutgers Energy
Institute.
Rutgers Infrastructure:
Rutgers has a large solar parking
canopy array on Livingston Campus. It covers 32 acres and provides 8 MW peak
power.
Plug-In
charging units are located at four different locations on campus:
Busch campus by Engineering – we have 4 Level-2 Chargers here, in Parking Lot 59: – Google Maps gives the location HERE,
Livingston campus in the Yellow Lot – we have 2 Level-2 Chargers here: – Google Maps gives the location HERE,
Livingston Campus in Lot 105 – we have 2 Level-2 Chargers here: – Google Maps gives the location HERE,
Livingston Campus by OIT field offices – we have a DC fast charger – which may be in use by facilities vehicles who operate a fleet of EVs for servicing the IT network on campus: – Google Maps gives the location HERE .
*** We are hoping to expand our infrastructure soon. If you have suggestions about reasonable locations on other parts of Rutgers far-reaching campuses then please send me email.
For more information contact:
Dunbar P. Birnie III
(dunbar.birnie@gmail.com)
Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
607 Taylor Rd.
Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854-8065
(c) 2013,2014,2017 Dunbar P. Birnie, III