Comparison of system architecture and converter topology for a solar powered electric vehicle charging station

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EV) can be charged in a sustainable way by charging them from photovoltaic (PV) panels. Workplace charging of EV from PV results in use of the solar potential of office buildings and the long parking time at workplace paves way for implementation of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. In this paper, different possible system architecture for an EV-PV charger are investigated and compared. A review of power converters that integrate EV and PV is made and the systems are compared based on system architecture, converter topology, isolation and bidirectional power capability for V2G operation. Based on the study, two optimal designs for the EV-PV charger are proposed that uses a multi-port converter. Different methods to implement modularity in the converter design for charging multiple EVs from a single EV-PV charger are presented.