Optimalisation the Position of Solar Cells for Vehicles

Abstract

An energy efficient solar power system and electric drive train has been developed with leadership of department of Automotive and Railway Engineering at Széchenyi István University in Gyor. This drive train with only solar power also has been successfully driven vehicle model for urban transport even in race conditions. Under favorable sunny conditions the energy consumption of the electric motors is less than charge of the photovoltaic system. The system is operating at a positive energy balance. The positive energy balance can be achieved with high-efficiency electric drive, which consists of two BLDC motors from Emoteq (MF 0210050) and an analog motor drive from Advanced Motion Controls (B40A8). Two key elements of the solar driven system are maximizing solar electricity from the Sun and minimizing the drag coefficient of vehicle. The main aim of the current research is finding an optimum between these two factors. The optimum placement of solar panels is the horizontal plane. The solar panels on top of the vehicle are parallel with the road plane. This is neither aesthetically correct nor is optimal from the aerodynamic point of view. The compromise of drag coefficient and irradiation conditions can be achieved by an optimization task. We can determine the two-way optimum curvature of the plane radiation and air resistance. The solution is a transparent streamline profile on the horizontal solar plane modules, which meets the requirements.