While it’s not the case for most of Canada, in many parts of the world the electricity used to power electric vehicles (EVs) is generated using fossil fuels.
To help lessen the environmental impact of EV charging, engineering students and professors at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan campus are attempting to develop eco-friendly EV charging stations.
The goal is to develop a charging station that is low-cost, uses renewable energy sources, while still providing the same performance of EV chargers today.
According to doctoral engineering student Majid Moradzadeh, he was able to develop a planning method that explored the use of different renewable resources, energy storage systems, while taking into account the EVs charging demand on the system.
“By developing a planning method, we are building a road map towards fast charging stations that can seamlessly target renewable sources of power instead of relying on existing fossil-fuel-powered sources,” Morad Abdelaziz, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at UBC Okanagan told Global News.
The results of the research will be shared with and used by local governments to help with their future EV charging station planning.
