Energy Management System in Series-Parallel Hybrid Solar Vehicle

Abstract

In this paper, the study on energy management in a hybrid solar vehicle is presented. The proposed system consisted of five main energy conversion components i.e. internal combustion engine, electric motor, electric generator, battery, and photovoltaic. The energy management system in hybrid solar vehicles aims to select the best mode of operation corresponding to the driving conditions and the state of charge of the battery. In this study, the proposed energy management system applied a specific energy balance equation for each mode of operation of the vehicle as the basis of the decision-making algorithms. The algorithms are then simulated on a model of series-parallel hybrid solar vehicle system to investigate the power supplied by each component, the fuel consumption of the vehicle, and the efficiency of each component. The results show that the fuel consumption of an internal combustion engine on a hybrid solar vehicle is about 30% less than the conventional vehicle, in which up to 0.6 % contributed by the photovoltaic cells.