Development of optimized electrical architecture for solar-powered refrigerated trailers

在世界各地，用于运输食品和药品的冷藏拖车目前利用单独的柴油发电机来为安装到拖车的制冷单元供电。该发电机每小时消耗约1升燃料，每辆拖车每年排放21公吨二氧化碳。韦斯希尔创新公司开发了太阳能技术，将其集成到拖车车顶上，使清洁的太阳能取代柴油发电机，这相当于从道路上减少7辆内燃机车。需要复杂的电力电子架构来在太阳能电池板、车载电池、三相电网连接和制冷单元的电气输入之间传输电力，所有这些都需要不同的电压水平。韦斯希尔创新的第一个太阳能拖车原型是使用现成的电力电子元件，拼凑在一起，以完成工作。虽然这是朝着太阳能拖车产品商业化迈出的重要一步，但目前电气架构的尺寸和质量太大，在商业上没有吸引力。该项目将研究最先进的电力电子拓扑和组件，以设计，构建和测试优化的电气架构，以满足这种独特应用的高效率和小尺寸的需求。该项目将从三个方面使加拿大受益：（i）开发技术，帮助一家小型加拿大公司扩大生产和销售，为成为太阳能拖车领域的世界领导者提供明确的道路，（ii）随着加拿大太阳能拖车的发展，有害柴油排放将减少，（iii）培养在电力电子关键领域接受过培训的高素质人才，这是许多当地工程公司非常需要的技能。

Around the world, refrigerated trailers for transporting food and medicine currently utilize a separate diesel generator to power a refrigeration unit mounted to the trailer. This generator consumes approximately one litre of fuel per hour and amounts to 21 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions per year per trailer. Westhill Innovation has developed solar technology which is integrated onto the trailer roofs to allow clean solar energy to replace this diesel generator, which is equivalent to removing 7 combustion vehicles from the road. A complex power electronic architecture is required to transfer power between the solar panels, the on-board battery, the three-phase grid connection, and the electrical input of the refrigeration unit, all which require different voltage levels. Westhill Innovation's first solar trailer prototype was built using off-the-shelf power electronic components which were pieced together to get the job done. While this was a great step towards commercializing the solar trailer product, the size and mass of the current electrical architecture is too large to be commercially attractive. This project will investigate state-of-the-art power electronic topologies and components to design, build, and test an optimized electrical architecture to meet the needs of this unique application with high efficiency and a small size. This project will benefit Canada is three ways: (i) develop technology that will help a small Canadian company expand production and sales, with a clear path to becoming a world leader in the solar trailer field, (ii) with the advancement of solar trailers in Canada, harmful diesel emissions will be reduced, and (iii) produce highly-qualified personnel trained in the critical area of power electronics, which is a much needed skill for many local engineering companies.