Degree of self-sufficiency of an electrified road coupled to renewable energy production: A case-study on the European road E39

Abstract

Electrified road systems (ERS) are an attempt to mitigate limitations occurring in Battery Electric vehicles considering range and large battery sizes. Such an ERS would require large investments into grid infrastructure and efforts to balance the demand. This thesis therefore investigates the connection of an ERS to renewable energy production with the aim to reduce dependency on an electricity grid. It is carried out as a case study for the European Road 39 in Western Norway. Two optimisation models for an ERS combined with renewable energy production capacity were designed for this study: (i) The ERS is decoupled from the electricity grid and the investments into renewable energy production capacity needed to fulfil the demand is minimised. (ii) The transfer of electricity through a grid connection to the ERS is minimised under a fixed budget for investment into renewable energy production capacity. The models are combined with scenarios allowing or disallowing the use of battery storage and pumped hydro power storage. The results show that the most effective way to power an ERS for the E39 is to combine wind power production with pumped hydro power storage, in this case, the cost for production capacity per driven kilometre is comparable to current gasoline prices. Without the use of storage, a large overproduction occurs and can be sold on the electricity market, however large investments into grid infrastructure are then necessary. A connection to the grid can be used to bridge large and rare shortages and demand peaks resulting in significantly lower investment costs for energy production capacity.