AESCU-BIKE design, implementation and testing

• Main Author: Romero Suarez, Ivan Jesus
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan Dalarna, Energiteknik 2019
• Subjects: E-Bike; Photovoltaic; PV; Energy Engineering; Energiteknik
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-31021

The AESCU-BIKE project is a cargo bike which has an inbuilt off-grid photovoltaic and a monitoring system. The off-grid photovoltaic system consists of a PV module, a lithium-ion battery, a lead acid battery, a charge controller and an electrical fridge. The PV module produces electrical energy which is used to cover the demand of an electrical fridge to supply enough cooling to store and transport pharmaceutical at temperature ranges between 0 °C and 8 °C within the city of Ulm. The monitoring system acquires, saves and plot information regarding the performance of the AESCU-BIKE such as voltages, currents, irradiance, temperatures, location and speed.  The first aim is to theoretically estimate the performance of the off-grid photovoltaic system during summertime and verify that the off-grid photovoltaics system components match. The second aim is to experimentally verify the theoretical estimation of the off-grid photovoltaic system performance during summertime by designing and implementing a monitoring system. The third aim is to visualize in real time information regarding the performance of the AESCU-BIKE. This information is used for an instant analysis of both transportation quality and correct functionality of the off-grid photovoltaic system. A user interface is programmed by using the software Nodered which can be installed in any smart device such as a computer, a smartphone or a Raspberry Pi.  Three different tests are performed to experimentally verify the theorical estimation of the off-grid photovoltaic system performance during summertime. Information such as PV module electrical energy production, fridge electrical energy demand, fridge temperature, ambient temperature, location and speed are plotted and analyzed using the software Excel.  After the results analysis, it is concluded that the monitoring system provides essential information to validate theoretical estimations and to deeply understand the behavior of the off-grid photovoltaic system. Regarding the PV module electrical energy production, losses related to the lack of a MPPT, not optimal PV module inclination angle and shading effect are clearly understood. Regarding the fridge electrical power demand, it is shown that the energy demand is highly related with the ambient temperature. The user interface makes the entire system more friendly. The instant visualization of the measurements helps the user to relate the physical phenomena with the system behavior.