Implementations of electric vehicle system based on solar energy in Singapore assessment of solar thermal technologies

Abstract

To build an electric car plus renewable energy system for Singapore, solar thermal technologies were investigated in this report in the hope to find a suitable "green" energy source for this small island country. Among all existing solar thermal technologies, parabolic trough power plants represent a well established technology with more than twenty years of operation experiences. This report reviewed recent progress of research in this field. It was found that significant progresses have been made in solar collector, heat transfer fluid and thermal storage. An economic assessment of the parabolic trough power plant technology was also carried out. By comparing a parabolic trough power plant and a concentrating photovoltaic solar farm, both advantages and limitations of these plants were indentified. Based on these findings, the niche market for parabolic trough power plants was analyzed. It was found that in the next few years, the deployment of parabolic trough plants would mainly occur in south-western U.S. and Mediterranean countries. However, it was found that concentrating solar thermal technologies were not suitable for Singapore, due to this country's limited land and high fraction of diffuse solar radiation. Therefore, PV technology was selected as a "clean" energy source. Based on PV electricity, a few electric vehicle (XEV) models were developed and evaluated.