Investigation of Electric Bus Fleet Charging Infrastructure: Modeling Ultra-Fast Charger Deployment and on-Board Solar Generation

In the transition to a sustainable transportation system, electric buses have garnered much attention due to the high pollution levels produced by conventional buses and their regular routes and charging opportunities that mesh well with electrification. This is the first study to investigate the use of onroute fast-chargers and on-board solar generation for battery electric buses (BEBs). A MATLAB/Simulink model is created and validated, then an economic analysis is performed using the simulation results to estimate the capital and electricity costs required for a small and large fleet. The simulation results show that for the drive cycle considered, without on-route fast charging, 2 BEBs would be required to complete the full day drive cycle, compared to only one BEB for the on-route fast-charging scenario. The economic analysis shows that on-route fast-charging is more beneficial for larger fleets where the installed chargers get more utilization. For the large fleet studied, the fast-charging BEB saved 19.42 % of costs over 10 years and the fast-charging solar-charged BEB saved 20.40 % over 10 years, compared to the baseline BEB. Also, the on-board solar generation showed a payback period of approximately 1.7 years and provides further benefits such as extended range and reduced battery depth-of-discharge.