Comparative Analysis of Charging Station Technologies for Light Electric Vehicles for the Exploitation in Small Islands †

Abstract

The worldwide growing adoption of Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) indicates that such technology might in the near future be decisive for improving the sustainability of transportation. The segment of LEVs has some peculiar features compared to electric mobility in general, which then deserve a devoted investigation. Stakeholders are called to implement the most appropriate technology depending on the context, by taking into account multi-faceted factors, which are the investigation object of this work. At first, a methodology is formulated for estimating the power and energy impact of LEVs recharging. Based on this, and assessed that the load constituted by LEVs is in general modest but might create some problems in lowly structured networks, it becomes conceivable to develop Charging Station (CS) technologies which are alternative to the grid connection at a point of delivery. Yet, it is fundamental to develop accurate methodologies for the techno-economic and environmental analysis. This work considers a use case developed at the University of Brescia (Italy): a CS operating off-grid, powered by PhotoVoltaics (PV). Its peculiarity is that it is transportable, which makes it more appealing for rural/remote areas or when the charging demand is highly not homogeneous in time. On these grounds, this work specializes to a context where the proposed solution might be more appealing: small isolated islands, in particular Favignana in Sicily (Italy). It is estimated that the adoption of the proposed off-grid CS is by far advantageous as regards the greenhouse gases emissions but it is more economically profitable than the grid connection only if the number of users per day is less than order of 200. Hence this work provides meaningful indications on the usefulness of off-grid CS powered by PV in peculiar contexts and furnishes a general method for their techno-economic and environmental assessment.