Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
Welcome to the August edition of Power Systems Design Europe. I read a study recently that found that consumers who have purchased EVs are also much more likely to have installed other environmental technologies at home, including solar panels, batteries, chargers and heat pumps. Batteries are critical to get the best return from solar panels - storing the excess energy that is generated while the sun is shining and releasing it when the sun stops shining and we start using greater amounts of energy. However, batteries also tend to be quite expensive, especially the larger batteries that are used for renewable energy storage.
EV owners have another battery in their vehicle that is usually larger than home storage batteries that are available. Alongside a smaller, cheaper domestic battery, it could be utilized as an additional storage system for homes. Even better, if the homeowner lives in an area where the cost of electricity varies with peak and off-peak times, the EV could be charged during off-peak times when electricity is cheap and the energy could be used at home, or in some cases returned to the grid, along with solar output when electricity is most expensive. This could prove to be an enormous cost saver for EV owners, as well as helping to balance the grid by evening out supply and demand cycles. Some EVs already have the capability to perform this function and there are more that will come onto the market in the near future.
The topic of this month’s Special Report is electric vehicles, hybrids and charging infrastructure, and the first article comes from Avnet Silica. It investigates the market and the technology behind vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems and details the components that will help make it achievable.
Analog Devices has contributed the second article in the Special Report. David Andeen details the benefits of using supercapacitors in electric vehicles. The load generated by EV motors can vary quite considerably as they start, stop and accelerate. This introduces wear and tear on the system. Supercapacitors are able to mitigate the strain on the battery and other components by releasing energy when the system’s demand is highest or lowest, augmenting the energy supplied by the battery.
The third article in this month’s Special Report looks at a different type of electric vehicle. eVTOLs are small aircraft that can carry humans. Flying cars have been imagined for quite some time, but it looks now as if they may actually become viable. Safety is paramount for this type of vehicle, and that means power can never be allowed to cut out. In the article, Christian Jonglas from Gaia Converter talk about the need for auxiliary power supplies and how they can be implemented.
As well as the featured articles in our Special Report, this month’s issue will also include general articles of interest to power engineers in our Tech Focus section, as well as the latest news and views from the industry.
Best Regards,
Ally Winning
European Editor, PSD
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