Global Cost and Carbon Impact Assessment Methodology for Electric Vehicles’ PV-Powered Charging Station

Abstract

To deal with the issue of climate change by moving towards sustainable development, electric mobility is one of the most beneficial approaches, offering users relatively low-carbon transport means. Based on a life cycle assessment, this paper investigates a calculation methodology of carbon impact and global cost for a photovoltaic-powered charging station (PVCS) for electric vehicles (EVs). The PVCS is equipped with a PV system, stationary storage, charging terminals, and connection with the power grid. This methodology has two main objectives. The first one is the estimation of the global cost of the PVCS under 30 years of lifespan, including the costs of investment, exploitation, maintenance, and externalities. The second one is the calculation and assessment of the carbon impact of the PVCS and comparing it with a grid-powered charging station (PGCS). According to the analysis of the results obtained, the carbon impact of the PV system is largely responsible for the global carbon impact of PVCS. Thus, levers of action and scenarios are proposed to reduce the global carbon impact by using more recent data and recycled materials for the most emitting elements of CO2. The proposed scenarios allowed a reduction in the carbon impact of the PVCS compared to the PGCS, where scenario 4 has the lowest carbon impact. For recent PV panels having a greatly reduced emission coefficient of 0.012 kgCO2,eq/kWh, and a recycled infrastructure, the PVCS has a 32.1% lower carbon impact than that of the PGCS.

Keywords

• global cost
• carbon impact
• PV panels
• electric vehicle
• charging station
• life cycle assessment