JP7650432B2 - Power Supply System - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to a power supply system.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for supplying power from a distributed power source installed in a vehicle. Patent Document 1 also discloses a solar cell as a distributed power source.

JP 2019-154218 A

The inventors are considering a power supply system that supplies power to facilities that are short of power (hereinafter, power-shortaged facilities) when a general vehicle (not a service vehicle that supplies power) equipped with a solar panel moves to a destination. Therefore, it is necessary to find facilities that are short of power on the route to the destination.
In addition, the power supply system disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a system in which a service provider that supplies power dispatches a vehicle owned by the service provider to a reserved facility to supply power. Therefore, there is no need to find facilities with power shortages on the route to the destination.

The present disclosure has been made in consideration of these circumstances, and provides a power supply system that enables a vehicle equipped with solar panels to easily find facilities with power shortages along the route to the destination.

A power supply system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes:
A power supply system in which a vehicle equipped with a solar panel supplies power to a facility that is short of power,
a route search unit that searches for a recommended route to a destination of the vehicle;
a display unit that displays the recommended route searched for by the route search unit,
The route search unit searches for a facility having a power shortage on the recommended route based on power consumption information for each facility,
The display unit displays the power shortage facility searched for by the route search unit together with the recommended route.

In a power supply system according to one aspect of the present disclosure, the route search unit searches for facilities with insufficient power on the recommended route based on power consumption information for each facility, and the display unit displays the facilities with insufficient power searched for by the route search unit together with the recommended route. This allows the vehicle (i.e., the user) to easily find facilities with insufficient power on the route to the destination.

The route search unit may propose, based on a sunshine forecast, a route with the most sunshine among multiple routes to the destination as the recommended route. This configuration can maximize the amount of power generated by the solar panel.

The route search unit may search for facilities with power shortages on the recommended route only when the remaining charge of the battery of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value. With this configuration, the user can be prompted to supply power to facilities with power shortages only when the remaining charge of the battery is sufficient.

The system may further include an incentive determination unit that provides a greater incentive to the user of the vehicle the greater the amount of power supplied to the facility with a power shortage. This configuration can promote power generation by the solar panel mounted on the vehicle.

This disclosure provides a power supply system that enables a vehicle equipped with solar panels to easily find facilities with power shortages along the route to its destination.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicle equipped with a solar panel. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a solar cell panel 10a. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a power supply system according to a first embodiment. 2 is a side view showing a schematic diagram of a charging/discharging device CD1 receiving power from a vehicle 1 equipped with a solar panel. FIG.

Specific embodiments to which the present disclosure is applied will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the following embodiments. In addition, the following descriptions and drawings have been simplified as appropriate for clarity of explanation.

(First embodiment)
<Configuration of solar panel-equipped vehicle>
First, the configuration of a vehicle equipped with a solar panel (solar panel-mounted vehicle) used in the power supply system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the solar panel-mounted vehicle. The solar panel-mounted vehicle 1 functions as a distributed power source that supplies power to facilities with a power shortage in the power supply system according to this embodiment.

Naturally, the right-handed xyz Cartesian coordinate system shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 described later is for the convenience of explaining the positional relationship of the components. In the example of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the positive x-axis direction indicates the front direction of the vehicle (i.e., the x-axis direction is the vehicle front-rear direction), the y-axis direction is the vehicle width direction, and the positive z-axis direction is the vertical upward direction (i.e., the z-axis direction is the vehicle height direction).

As shown in FIG. 1, the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 has solar panels 10a and 10b attached to the upper surface of the vehicle body. In the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 shown in FIG. 1, the solar panel 10a is attached to the roof 1a, and the solar panel 10b is attached to the bonnet 1b.

The configuration of the solar cell panels 10a, 10b shown in FIG. 1 is merely an example and is not limiting in any way. For example, the solar cell panel-equipped vehicle 1 may have either the solar cell panel 10a attached to the roof 1a or the solar cell panel 10b attached to the hood 1b. The solar cell panel-equipped vehicle 1 may also have solar cell panels attached to the side of the vehicle body, such as the doors, instead of or in addition to the solar cell panels 10a, 10b attached to the top surface of the vehicle body.

Although not shown, the power generated by the solar panels 10a, 10b is charged to batteries such as a main battery for driving and a sub-battery for auxiliary equipment. The voltage of the main battery is, for example, 200V, and the power charged to the main battery is supplied, for example, to a driving motor. On the other hand, the voltage of the sub-battery is, for example, 12V, and the power charged to the sub-battery is supplied to auxiliary equipment such as headlights, turn signals, air conditioner, car navigation, audio, and various control units.

The solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 may be any vehicle that has a solar panel attached to the vehicle body. Furthermore, the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 is not limited to electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, etc. that can be driven by electricity, but may also be an engine vehicle that can be driven by an engine.

As shown in FIG. 1, each of the solar panels 10a and 10b includes a plurality of solar cells 11 arranged in parallel in the vehicle width direction (y-axis direction) and the vehicle front-rear direction (x-axis direction). In the example shown in FIG. 1, the plurality of solar cells 11 are arranged in a matrix.

2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the solar cell panel 10a. As shown in FIG. 2, the solar cell panel 10a includes a solar cell 11, a sealing layer 12, a cover glass 13, and a back sheet .
The solar cell panel 10b has a similar configuration to the solar cell panel 10a. The cross-sectional configuration of the solar cell panel 10a shown in Fig. 2 is merely an example and is not limiting in any way.

The material of the solar cell 11 is a silicon-based material (e.g., a crystalline silicon-based material). The solar cell 11 is, for example, a flat member having a rectangular shape when viewed in the xy plane. The upper surface (the main surface on the z-axis negative direction side) of the solar cell 11 is a light receiving surface, and the lower surface (the main surface on the z-axis positive direction side) is an electrode surface. An electrode (not shown) is formed on the lower surface.
In addition, in FIG. 2, wiring connected to electrodes formed on the solar cell 11 is also omitted.

As described above, the multiple solar battery cells 11 are arranged side by side in the vehicle width direction (y-axis direction) and in the vehicle front-rear direction (x-axis direction).
As shown in FIG. 2 , the plurality of solar cells 11 are sealed within a sealing layer 12 .

The sealing layer 12 is a resin layer that covers and protects the solar cell 11. The sealing layer 12 is made of, for example, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) resin. EVA resin is suitable for the sealing layer 12 in terms of transparency, flexibility, adhesiveness, etc.
As shown in FIG. 2 , the sealing layer 12 is sandwiched between a cover glass 13 and a back sheet 14 .
The material constituting the sealing layer 12 is not limited to EVA resin, but may be polyolefin resin, ionomer resin, or the like.

The cover glass 13 is a glass plate that covers the upper surface of the sealing layer 12 and protects the solar cell 11. The cover glass 13 has transparency. The higher the transmittance of the cover glass 13, the higher the power generation efficiency of the solar cell 11, which is preferable.
The cover glass 13 may be processed into a curved shape so as to fit the three-dimensional shape of the roof 1a of the solar cell panel-equipped vehicle 1 to which it is attached.

The back sheet 14 covers the lower surface of the sealing layer 12 to protect the solar cell 11. The back sheet 14 is not particularly limited, but is made of a resin such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin.
The back sheet 14 may also be processed into a curved shape so as to fit the three-dimensional shape of the roof 1a of the solar cell panel-equipped vehicle 1 to which it is attached.

<Power supply system configuration>
Next, the power supply system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic diagram of the power supply system according to the first embodiment. As shown in Fig. 3, the power supply system according to the present embodiment includes a management unit 100 and a display unit 200.

The management unit 100 is a computer that manages the power supply system according to this embodiment. The management unit 100 is, for example, a server such as a cloud server, and is provided separately from the display unit 200.
As shown in FIG. 3, the management unit 100 includes a route searching unit 101 and an incentive determining unit 102 .

Although not shown, the management unit 100 includes a calculation unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a storage unit such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a ROM (Read Only Memory) in which various programs and data are stored. In other words, the management unit 100 has the functions of a computer and executes various processes based on the various programs and the like.

Therefore, in terms of hardware, each functional block of the route search unit 101 and the incentive determination unit 102 in the management unit 100 shown in FIG. 3 can be configured with the above-mentioned CPU, memory unit, and other circuits. In terms of software, each functional block can be realized by a program stored in the memory unit. In other words, each functional block can be realized in various forms by hardware, software, or a combination of both.

As shown in FIG. 3, the route search unit 101 searches for a route to a destination based on the input destination information. In other words, the route search unit 101 constitutes a navigation system. The destination information is input, for example, by the driver (i.e., the user) of the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1. The route search unit 101 transmits a recommended route from the multiple routes that have been searched to the display unit 200. The route search unit 101 may transmit all of the multiple routes that have been searched to the display unit 200.

As shown in FIG. 3, the route search unit 101 may propose, as a recommended route, the route with the most sunlight among multiple routes to the destination based on a sunlight forecast. The sunlight forecast is, for example, a weather forecast. The route search unit 101 can predict the amount of sunlight for each route, for example, from the positional relationship between the sun and buildings located on both sides of the searched route (i.e., the road). The route with the most sunlight can maximize the amount of power generated by the solar cell panels 10a, 10b.

The recommended route may be the shortest route to the destination. The shortest route can reduce fuel consumption. For example, if the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 is an electric vehicle that can be driven by electricity, power consumption can be reduced.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the route search unit 101 searches for facilities with insufficient power on the recommended route based on the power consumption information for each facility, and transmits the facilities with insufficient power along with the recommended route to the display unit 200. The route search unit 101 obtains the power consumption information for each facility, for example, from a power company. The facilities are all facilities that can receive power from the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1. Such facilities are, for example, equipped with a power receiving device for receiving power from the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1.

3 acquires the remaining charge of the battery of the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1, and searches for a facility with a power shortage on the recommended route only when the remaining charge is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value. The remaining charge of the battery is, for example, SOC (States Of Charge). For example, the reference value is SOC=80%. With this configuration, the user can be prompted to supply power to a facility with a power shortage only when the remaining charge of the battery is sufficient.
The above reference value is determined appropriately and is not limited in any way.

Here, the charge/discharge device CD1 shown in FIG. 3 will be described.
Charging/discharging device CD1 is connected to the power grid and can charge solar panel-equipped vehicle 1. On the other hand, charging/discharging device CD1 can receive power generated by solar panel panels 10a, 10b of solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 from solar panel-equipped vehicle 1. In other words, charging/discharging device CD1 is a power receiving device and can supply the power received from solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 to the power grid.
Charging/discharging device CD1 is installed in a facility that may experience a power shortage (for example, a large commercial facility, etc.).

Here, FIG. 4 is a side view that typically shows how charging/discharging device CD1 receives power from solar panel-mounted vehicle 1. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4 , a connector CN provided at the end of a cable CB extended from the charging/discharging device CD1 is connected to a port PT of the vehicle 1 equipped with a solar panel, and the charging/discharging device CD1 receives power from the vehicle 1 equipped with a solar panel.

When the battery of the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 is fully charged, the battery cannot be charged any further, and the power generated by the solar panels 10a, 10b goes to waste. In such a case, the charging/discharging device CD1 receives power from the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1, so that the power generated by the solar panels 10a, 10b can be used effectively without being wasted.

The incentive determination unit 102 provides an incentive to the user of the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 based on the amount of power received by the charging/discharging device CD1 from the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 (i.e., the amount of power supplied to the power grid). This configuration can promote power generation by the solar panels 10a and 10b mounted on the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1.

Specifically, the incentive determination unit 102 gives a larger incentive to the user of the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 as the amount of power received by the charging/discharging device CD1 (i.e., the amount of power supplied to the power grid) increases. The incentive is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, points, coupons, discounts, cash back, etc., related to the use of a large commercial facility in which the charging/discharging device CD1 is installed. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the incentive determination unit 102 transmits the determined incentive to the display unit 200 and causes it to be displayed.

3, the display unit 200 displays to the user the power shortage facilities searched for by the route search unit 101 together with a recommended route. Also, as shown in FIG 3, the display unit 200 displays to the user the incentive determined by the incentive determination unit 102.
The display unit 200 is, for example, an in-vehicle monitor for a navigation system. The display unit 200 may also be, for example, a display unit of a mobile communication terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal, or a user terminal such as a PC (Personal Computer).

As described above, in the power supply system according to this embodiment, the route search unit 101 searches for facilities with insufficient power on the recommended route to the destination based on the power consumption information for each facility. The display unit 200 then displays the facilities with insufficient power searched for by the route search unit 101 together with the recommended route.

Therefore, the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 (i.e., the user) can easily find facilities with power shortages on the route to the destination. In other words, while the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1 is moving to the destination, power can be supplied to facilities with power shortages that are convenient for the solar panel-equipped vehicle 1. As a result, power generation by the solar panel panels 10a and 10b can be promoted, and carbon dioxide emissions can be suppressed.
Naturally, if the facility with power shortage is at the destination, power may be supplied to the facility with power shortage at the destination, rather than during the journey to the destination.

The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
Furthermore, the present disclosure contributes to carbon neutrality, decarbonization, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with regard to the use of solar panels.

Reference Signs List 1 Vehicle equipped with solar panel 1a Roof 1b Bonnet 10a, 10b Solar panel 11 Solar cell 12 Sealing layer 13 Cover glass 14 Back sheet 100 Management unit 101 Route search unit 102 Incentive determination unit 200 Display unit CB Cable CD1 Charging/discharging device CN Connector PT Port

Claims (3)

A power supply system in which a vehicle equipped with a solar panel supplies power to a facility that is short of power,
a route search unit that searches for a recommended route to a destination of the vehicle;
a display unit that displays the recommended route searched for by the route search unit,
the route search unit searches for facilities with power shortages on the recommended route based on power consumption information for each facility acquired from an electric power company ;
The display unit displays the power shortage facility searched for by the route search unit together with the recommended route,
the route search unit predicts an amount of sunlight on each of a plurality of routes to the destination from a positional relationship between the sun and buildings arranged on both sides of each of the routes based on a sunshine forecast, and proposes the route with the greatest amount of sunlight as the recommended route.
Power supply system. the route search unit searches for a facility with a power shortage on the recommended route only when the remaining charge of the battery of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value.
The power supply system according to claim 1 . and an incentive determination unit that determines whether or not the amount of power supply to the power shortage facility is greater, and that determines whether or not the amount of power supply to the power shortage facility is greater, and
3. The power supply system according to claim 1 or 2.

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