Measurements and analysis of a solar-assisted city bus with a diesel engine

The volatility nature of world fossil fuel economy and stringent emission regulations around the globe have routed to search for sustainable renewable energy resources for automotive applications. Photovoltaic is one of the finest sustainable energy resources which can make significant contributions in power generation applications and act as decarbonization method for greenhouse gas reductions. This research work is a novel attempt to develop hybrid photovoltaic solar electric system for electricity production in a heavy-duty diesel engine driven city bus. A dedicated solar PV system of 2.88 kWp rated power has been installed in a city bus roof for electricity generation and its solar radiation rate has been analysed in one year duration on monthly basis under all ambient conditions in the Lublin city of Poland. A well-equipped data acquisition system is used to collect all the data for estimating the energy savings and carbon dioxide reduction. The real investigation of solar assisted city bus has shown remarkable enhancement of electricity generation of 900 W in summer season at mid-day. Interestingly, the hybrid solar PV system provided 89% of total electricity demand of city bus during clear weather conditions and substantial contributions are obtained even during winter season as well. Out of total electricity demand of 6327.9 kWh of city bus, the solar hybrid PV systems shared nearly 1257.4 kWh of electricity for 64,000 km distance coverage in one complete year. It has also been observed that nearly 21% of total electricity demand of city bus is supplied by solar hybrid PV systems which can save the annual diesel consumption of 630 L and also reduce 1.6 tonnes of green house gas emissions. Finally, it is concluded that suitable photovoltaic technology for automotive applications would improve the world fuel economy and can also produce the clean environment in near future.

Automated summary

The research focuses on developing a hybrid photovoltaic solar electric system for electricity production in a heavy-duty diesel engine driven city bus, with the aim of enhancing electricity generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The study shows that the solar-assisted city bus significantly increases electricity generation in the summer season and can provide 89% of the total electricity demand during clear weather conditions.