Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles

An Opportunity for India

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM
ashok@tenet.res.in

In first week of December 2015

When whole of IITM had no power for 75 hours
Even 1 MW solar plant at IITM failed to provide any power

There was one home which continued to have lights

and fans and cell-phone / lap-top charger
125W solar panel + 1 kWh battery (50% can be used)
Two tube-lights were used regularly + bulb and fan
occasionally + laptop charged / discharged fully 15 times +
cell phone charging
Fails to add up

Solar DC Inverterless
Full DC wiring, all Loads DC, solar and battery connected on
DC line, input grid power converted to DC
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

Decentralised Solar Power at Homes

Solar PV gives DC Power

Solar DC

But load is AC
Needs a DC-AC convertor

Now if we add a battery

DC-AC

Battery stores only DC

AC Load
Grid

AC-DC

Battery

DC-AC

Require a AC-DC convertor for

charging
Require a DC-AC convertor
during discharging

For low power, each convertor

can have 10 to 15% loss
Solar with battery may have up
to 45% loss + battery loss

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

And it gets Worse

As one realises that home-load is moving towards DC

Fans

AC fan

BLDC fan

At full Speed

72W

30W

At speed 1

60W

9W

CFL Tube light

LED tube

36W

15W

NA

4W

Lighting

At Max. Intensity
At Lowest Intensity

Volume prices
similar for fans

LED tube life much longer (DC

powering enhances reliability)

All Electronics devices work on low-voltage DC

TV (LED/LCD), laptops. Cell-phones, speaker-phones, tablets, speakers
AC to DC conversion has losses from 20% to 50% in each device

Even the refrigerators, air-conditioners, washing machine in future will be

BLDC motors

Use of DC-powered and energy-efficient devices

Consumption down by 50%
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

Move to Solar-DC at Home Premises

Solar Panel
Battery
DC Appliances

Solar

48VDC

grid

48VDC

battery

Highly efficient usage of Power

Low-power from grid alone converted from
AC-DC (Designed to have minimal losses)

48VDC

AC-DC

Home Micro-grid connecting

Load

48V DC chosen due to

Safety considerations
Lower cable losses compared to 12V/24V
DC systems

But design non-trivial

Solar MPPT voltage varies

Battery needs independent charge voltage
Load is at some fixed voltage
DC-DC converters will add similar losses

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

Solar-DC Inverterless
125W panels

Upto 500W possible

Designed as an expandable
product, still keeping losses low

125W to 500W 48V DC

(and possibly 150W
uninterrupted AC) Power
with BLE prepaid recharge

230V AC

Monitored using
Bluetooth

Special 1 kWh VRLA battery

with 1600 cycles for 50%
DoD
Up to 5 kWh possible

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

Appliances
LED Bulb

Cell phone Charger/Socket

5W instead of 30W bulb

DC charger with USB port

LED Tube light

15W - dimmable to 4W, instead of 36W
fluorescent tube

BLDC Fan
30W instead of 72W AC fan
9W at lowest speed

Cost: 20000 for 125W SP +

1 kWh Battery

Remote Control for Fan &

Tube light
ON/OFF and for dimming

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

Products in pipeline
DC-powered 19 Colour TV
Consumes 30W along with
set-top box at 48V DC

Solar Water-stove
Still experimental
Will require at least
500W solar power
Pilot to be carried out

DC Desert Cooler
Consumes 60W
instead of 180W
AC cooler

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

DC 100L
Refrigerator
In design

Deployment in Rajasthan
Electrifying
4000
off-grid
homes with support from
Ministry
of
Power
(Government of India), Rural
Electrification
Corporation
(REC), and Jodhpur Vidyut
Vitran Nigam Ltd (JDVVNL)
Deployment
started
with
Bhoom Ji ka Gaon, December
2015: tough terrain, no road
connectivity, sandstorms, lack
of local resources
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

A home at Bap, Rajasthan

Monitoring performance through Blue-tooth
Paramount in design tuning

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

10

Users Response
Apne Vidyarthiyon ko ghar ka
kaam dene laga hu. Khush hu
ki is baar garmiyon mein bhi
bachhe mann laga kar padhai
karenge.
- Masterji
Sab ko utshah se apne ghar
ka Solar system dikhata hu ji,
hamare ghar mein bhi pankha,
light aur remote hai
- Dunga Ram

feedback:
https://youtu.be/NF6EgdRsBXk

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

11

Motivation for going Solar Inverterless

It is a Solar + power back-up, but far more
efficient
as 100 Watts DC
Can support 3 lights + 2 fans + cell-phone charging
Or 3 lights + 1 fan + TV (24 LED/LCD) + cell-phone
charging

Solar Panel and Batteries have to be appropriately

sized
Devices can be added as required

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

12

Small AC / DC Home Power Costs

Device

Numbers Operation
deployed hrs/ day
Tubelights
2
6
Fans
2
12
Bulbs
2
10
Air coolers Small Home
Phones
1
4
Laptops
TV
1
10

Cost / day includes depreciation and

interest for solar panel and battery
assuming grid costs of 5 per unit

AC Home
DC Home
Energy/ Cost Battery solar Energy Cost Battery solar
day
per
Size
panel / day per
Size
panel
kWh
day kWh Wp kWh day kWh Wp
AC Grid + 0 LS
3.16 15.79
1.21 6.04
AC Grid + Battery + 4h LS
3.63 31.35 2.11
1.28 10.22 0.61 125
off-grid + Battery + Solar
5.60 71.44 6.7 1375 1.28 15.85 1.78 375
AC +Battery + Solar + 4h LS 3.67 30.53 1.9
125 1.24 8.66 0.45 125

Off-grid home costs with solar-DC (15.85 per day) becomes comparable to
costs of on-grid AC homes with no power-cuts (15.79 per day). If one uses AC
wiring with DC appliances, costs for off-grid home shoots up to 24.24 per day.
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

13

Even for grid-connected home

Solar-DC Inverterless + DC power line at home + DC
appliances can be huge savings

Further, 500W solar power with DC appliances can take

care of most essential loads in middle class homes
Except washing machines, mixers / grinders, air-conditioners
Small power drawn from grid: reduces power-bill
240M homes: average 500W solar (50 sqft), will produce nearly
240M x 0.5 kw x 1600 solar hours a year = 190,000 GWh per year
Close to total Domestic consumption in a year

India can become the most green nation

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

14

UDC Innovation
Issues
Acceptance among people for technology and DC
Lack of standardization and availability of Home appliances

What it Needs? Instead of Push create a Market

PULL
UDC Innovation aimed to create such a market PULL by
Providing a limited Power DC line at each home from
existing AC distribution grid in addition to existing AC line
During Load shedding, AC line is cut-off, but DC line is kept
ON
Making the DC line free of Load-shedding
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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Addition of a DC Power line at each Home

33KV

TRANSFORMER

Unlimited Pow er existing

230Vac line

11 KV

DT

Normal: 230V

New Limited Power DC

line at 48V

Substation

UDPM

Home

Substation charges feeders with 11kV Distribution Line

Distribution transformer steps down voltage to 230V in each of the three
phases

UDPM at home allows using present AC line and a limited power DC line
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

16
11

Load shedding: 90% power cut Brown-out

Brown-out
Control

33KV

TRANSFORMER

230Vac line: cut-off

during Brow n-out

11 KV

Brown-out

DT

Normal: 230V
Brown-out: 90V

Some 10%
of pow er

Tap or Step-down
transformer (0.4)

Substation

UDPM

Limited Pow er DC
supply at 48V:
Uninterrupted

Home

4.4 KV

No change in DT or distribution lines

Brown-out: continue feeding 10% power to Distribution Line

Substation feeds 11kV in normal and with 4.4kV in brown-out condition (only 10%) on DL
Distribution transformer steps down voltage to 230V in normal / 90V in brown-out condition

UDPM detects voltage drop to 90V: cuts off AC line but continues feeding 48V DC

10% BO Power small enough to be made available even during worst power-shortage

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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A free of Load Shedding line at homes

Will now induce customers to use DC power
line and appliances
As DC appliances become acceptable and
customers see power-savings and reliability
Will add more and more appliances

When Limited power provided by UDC gets

exhausted, will be willing to add solar-DC

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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When Indian cities are talking about overcoming air-pollution

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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Rational for going Electric

India does not have much oil
Our oil imports are rising continuously and hurting
Indian economy very badly
No solution in sight in short, medium or long-term

Our cities and towns are highly congested

As middle class increases, vehicle population
continuously grow
Highly polluting urban India
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

20

How ready are we with EV?

cost
IC-engine
Drive-train

Electrical
Drive-train

Year
Recent

For any vehicle, compare the

cost of mechanical (IC Engine)
drive-train (MDT) with electrical
drive-train without batteries
(EDT)
Along with associated
subsystems

MDT cost goes up year after

year (inflation)
EDT cost goes down year after
year (R&D, Moores law and SW)
Sometime in recent times it
crosses each other
Gap is to only increase year
after year
Battery should be treated as fuel

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

21

Cost of Fuel

Petrol cost per Km increases year

after year (at least till last year)
Though enhanced fuel-efficiency
through R&D helps slow this

cost

Total cost of battery per Km (lifetime depreciation, interest,

maintenance and charging of
battery) keeps coming down
Battery R&D enhancing chargedischarge cycles and reducing costs
continuously
Likely to only accelerate

Crossover took place sometime

back

Petrol cost
per Km

Battery plus
charging cost
per Km

Year

Li-Ion Battery costs are falling 8% per annum

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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The nay-sayers

But do we not have shortage of electricity?

No significant off-peak hour shortage of electricity
Electricity generation continuously increasing
Need to discourage EV charging during peak hours

India has huge solar potential to charge EV in day time

Do electric-generation plants not pollute?

Power generator pollutes much less than a vehicle for every Km even today
Much easier to manage reduced pollution in large electric plants as compared
to in every vehicle
Technology can be further improved to reduce emissions

Power pollution is not in most congested areas

Disposal of battery
Technologies fast evolving for battery-reuse and end of life safe disposal

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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Benefits Power Industry

Introduce Time of day
Metering for Vehicles
Can enable significant offtake of power during night
time and off-peak hours
Helps in Load Balancing and
reduce peaking
Tariff for day time charging at
commercial rates

Use Solar Chargers during

day time or pay high day
time costs

Slow-chargers at home
AC chargers: typically
from 15A single phase
Takes 7 hours for full
battery life

Fast Chargers at Public

Places
Charge in 45 minutes
Need High Voltage DC
Chargers

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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What is Ready in India

Use of Li-Ion Advanced
battery
3000 charge-discharge cycles

Make in India Push

2 / 4-door e-Rewa: small car
e-Verito: 110 kms per charge
About 10 kms range for 1 kW

2-wheelers / 3-wheelers
(several players)

e-Maximo: 8-seater sharedtaxi / goods vehicle

Need push for

Small buses
Large Buses (may have to be
hybrid to begin with)

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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R&D Required
Development of Motors: BLDC, SR-motors
Drive for motors
Can enhance 10 to 15% efficiency

Batteries
Battery Cell: Chemistry
Cell to Pack Design: Physics, Mechanics, Electronics
Innovative Cell-packaging: Plate Thickness, interconnections,
thermal management
BMS and Charging / discharging
Partial charge discharge, precise SOC and SOH monitoring

Second Use of Battery

Light-weight Materials, Integration

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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Why did all this become possible today?

Cost Point: But why did the cost point become
comparable to AC now?
Clues
Power Electronics Integrated Circuits
Digitisation of signal processing in power
Coupling / transformers break the bound of 50 Hz
Can now operate at 5000 Hz as easily

Potential to impact all kinds of Industries

tomorrow?
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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What Can we Achieve

50% of Power produced using Solar by 2030
Decentralised solar and DC micro-grids to play important
role

Most Transport using Electric Power by 2030

Climate Change debate will be turned up-side down

Huge opportunity for Make in India

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India

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