Dr. Ramírez-Arias, Guillermo

Despite the accelerated adoption of the Electric Vehicle (EV) on a global scale, Chile reports a marginal adoption among non-commercial users of passenger cars (NCUPC), which can be attributed to the lack of subsidies to cover the upfront cost of EVs. This paper proposes and evaluates a strategy that integrates a Timeof-Use (TOU) tariff with Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) operation to promote EV adoption without requiring subsidies or significant investments in grid infrastructure. The study uses technical data to estimate residential electric consumption patterns, battery charging/discharging profiles, and operating conditions of V2H, considering different scenarios to calculate economic metrics using a differential cash flow. The annual traveled distance is used as a metric for comparative analysis, being captured for each scenario when the Internal Return Rate (IRR) equals the 7% discount rate that defines the economic balance. Results show that integrating TOU and V2H reduces the annual traveled distance required to get economic balance by up to 13% compared with the current scenario. Moreover, when considering plausible forecasts of gas and EV upfront cost, the annual traveled distance can be further reduced by up to 31.6% and 50%, respectively, making EVs economically viable for a broader range of current users of combustion vehicles.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants are popular sources of renewable energy. Factors that affect the performance of energy collection through PV facilities include the material of the solar panels and the incident irradiation that reach their surface. In this context, evaluations reported in the literature normally assess the effects of using different materials and tracking systems to follow the sun position throughout the day; however, these evaluations usually analyze these properties independently and focus mainly on energy yield. From a practical perspective, to assess the effective utility of solar technology as a valid alternative to fossil fuels for energy generation, the evaluations should take a holistic approach, considering different types of technology and the specific operational conditions of the target environment. For example, the relative gains of using an advanced tracking system might be significant in cold climates. This paper presents a performance analysis of an on-grid microgrid installed in the south-central part of Chile, composed by a variety of PV modules, inverters, and fixed and tracking mounting structures, with a combined installed capacity of 41.2 kWp. The evaluation also considers the impact of the different technologies under study in terms of CO2 emission mitigation capacity. The analysis performed over the data collected during two years shows that different configurations and combinations of silicon PV panels and mounting systems have different benefits and drawbacks depending on the target metric and environmental conditions. Regarding tracking performance, the PV Systems with solar tracking develop annual capacity factors of up to 25.89% (with up to 39% during summer), while some of the fixed system can only reach a 18.56% (with up to 24% during summer) during the same period of evaluation. The results allow for the quantification of the impact that different tracking systems have on key performance indicators in regions such as the one considered in this study.