This thesis examines charging of electric vehicles with charging power of 3,7 kW, in connection to an apartment building in Sweden. Also the power consumption of six electric vehicles are investigated. The charging-simulations of the electric vehicles were performed with the electric vehicle charging model (Grahn-Munkhammar) in MatLab. To simulate general energy use for a housing complex, the measured energy consumption per year for a building with 24 apartments was used. Three different systems with charging over a year were simulated. One system included six different models of electric vehicles, another system included six Tesla model S and yet another one included six Mitsubishi Outlanders. The simulations of electric vehicle charging resulted in a charging pattern with a considerable variability and an aggregation effect with a value over 20 % for all three systems. Results show that electric vehicle charging adds to the power peaks of the apartment building. However, according to the model, the aggregation effect implies that effect values of total electric vehicle charging were not harmful to an apartment building with a fuse of 63 A.

Energy harvesting and energy storage are two most important technologies in today's green and renewable energy science. As for energy harvesting, the fundamental science and practically applicable technologies are not only essential in realizing the self-powered electronic devices and systems, but also tremendously helpful in meeting the rapid-growing world-wide energy consumptions. Mechanical energy is one of the most universally-existing, diversely-presenting, but usually-wasted energies in the natural environment. Owing to the limitations of the traditional technologies for mechanical energy harvesting, it is highly desirable to develop new technology that can efficiently convert different types of mechanical energy into electricity. On the other hand, the electricity generated from environmental energy often needs to be stored before used to drive electronic devices. For the energy storage units such as Li-ion batteries as the power sources, the limited lifetime is the prominent problem. Hybridizing energy harvesting devices with energy storage units could not only provide new solution for this, but also lead to the realization of sustainable power sources. In this dissertation, the research efforts have led to several critical advances in a new technology for mechanical energy harvesting—triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Previous to the research of this dissertation, the TENG only has one basic mode—the contact mode. Through rational structural design, we largely improved the output performance of the contact-mode TENG and systematically studied their characteristics as a power source. Beyond this, we have also established the second basic mode for TENG—the lateral sliding mode, and demonstrated sliding-based disk TENGs for harvesting rotational energy and wind-cup-based TENGs for harvesting wind energy. In order to expand the application and versatility of TENG by avoid the connection of the electrode on the moving part, we further developed another basic mode—freestanding-layer mode, which is capable of working with supreme stability in non-contact mode and harvesting energy from any free-moving object. Both the grating structured and disk-structured TENGs based on this mode also display much improved long-term stability and very high energy conversion efficiency. For the further improvement of the TENG’s output performance from the material aspect, we introduced the ion-injection method to study the maximum surface charge density of the TENG, and for the first time unraveled its dependence on the structural parameter—the thickness of the dielectric film. The above researches have largely propelled the development of TENGs for mechanical energy harvesting and brought a big potential of impacting people’s everyday life. Targeted at developing sustainable and independent power sources for electronic devices, efforts have been made in this dissertation to develop new fundamental science and new devices that hybridize the nanogenerator-based mechanical energy harvesting and the Li-ion-battery-based energy storage process into a single-step process or in a single device. Through hybridizing a piezoelectric nanogenerator with a Li-ion battery, a self-charging power cell has been demonstrated based on a fundamentally-new mechanical-to-electrochemcial process. The triboelectric nanogenerator as a powerful technology for mechanical energy harvesting has also been hybridized with a Li-ion battery into a self-charging power unit. This new concept of device can sustainably provide a constant voltage for the non-stop operation of electronic devices.

Transportsektorn står inför en omställning från förbränningsfordon till eldrivna fordon. Detta är en åtgärd för att minska koldioxidutsläppet inom transportsektorn och därmed reducera klimatpåverkan. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur en ökad effektanvändning i form av elbilsladdning påverkar Gävles lokala elnät samt hur olika laddtekniker påverkar elnätet. Bakgrunden till studien grundar sig att elnätsföretaget vill öka medvetenheten om hur elnätets beredskap ser ut för en ökad elbilsladdning. Att undersöka elbilsladdningens påverkan på elnätet är av stor nytta för elnätsföretaget, men även andra som undersöker elbilsladdnings påverkan i elnätet kan ha användning för studien. Ämnet elbilsladdning är mycket aktuellt och många studier undersöker olika delar som berör elbilsladdning. Tidigare studier undersöker även olika typer av laddtekniker och hur smart laddning minska påverkan i elnätet. Smart laddning kan anpassa elbilsladdningen genom att styra den efter olika styrsignaler och sammankoppla hela elnätet. Denna studie undersöker delar av Gävles lokala elnät genom att simulera befintliga mätvärden lågspänningsnätet samt olika typer av elbilsladdning. Studien analyserar effektanvändningen av befintliga mätdata samt belastningsström och spänningsfall i elnätet med varierande lastprofiler i fyra olika områden. Resultatet för denna studie visar att elbilsladdning påverkar elnätet, vilket beror på vilken typ av laddteknik som används samt dimensioneringen av elnätet. Studien visar att elanvändningen i området idag har effekttoppar på eftermiddag och kväll när kunderna består av villakunder men att effekttoppen kan vara mitt på dagen där det finns industrier. Med elbilsladdning ökar belastningen samt spänningsfallet i nätet och en del av säkringarna i nätet löser ut. Laddning med 11 kW mellan kl. 16:00-19:00 samt laddning med effektvakt på 13,8 kW ger störst belastning och spänningsfall. Laddning utan styrning är den laddteknik som påverkar elnätet mest men laddning med effektvakt orsakar också problem. Laddning med 5,5 kW mellan kl. 23:00-06:00 samt när endast 50% av alla kunder laddar med 11 kW mellan kl. 16:00-19:00 är de scenarion som påverkar elnätet minst. Laddning med en låg effekt under natten när grundlasten är som lägst är den laddteknik som är mest gynnsam för elnätet. Studien visar även att nätet klarar en högre belastning av elbilsladdning inom en snar framtid om endast en del av kunderna i nätet använder elfordon. / The transport sector is facing a transition from combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. Through this action the carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector can be reduced. The purpose of this study is to observe how an increased power use from electric vehicle charging (EVC) affects the local electricity grid in Gävle. The study also addresses how different charging techniques affect the electricity grid. The background of this study is to the increase awareness of the capacity of the electricity grid. There is a need from the electricity grid company to look over the impact on the grid from EVC. This could also be useful for others looking over the impact on the electricity grid from EVC. This is a hot topic and lots of other studies look over the different aspects of EVC. Previous studies also examine different types of charging techniques and how smart charging reduces the negative impact on the electricity grid. Smart charging is a way to adjust the EVC by regulating it after different parameters and connecting the entire electrical grid. This study simulates existing measured values of the low-voltage grid in Gävle and various types of EVC. This study examines the power use of existing measurement data as well as load current and voltage drops in the electricity grid with different load profiles in four different areas. Results from this study shot that EVC affects the electricity grid, to what extent depends on the type of charging technology used and the dimensions of the electricity grid. The study shows that electricity use in the area has power peaks in the afternoon and evening with residential customers, but power peaks tend to be in the middle of the day if there are industries in the area. EVC increase the load on the electricity grid, causes voltage drops and a few fuses in the grid to be triggered. Charging with 11 kW between 16:00-19:00 and charging with a power monitor of 13.8 kW create the greatest voltage drops and highest load on the grid. Charging without means of control affects the electricity grid the most but charging with a power monitor also creates problems. Charging with 5.5 kW between 23:00-06:00 as well as when only 50 % of all customers charge with 11 kW between 16:00-19:00 impacts the grid the least. Charging with low power during the night when the base load is at its lowest is the charging technology that is most favorable for the electricity grid. Results also show that the grid can handle a higher load of EVC in the near future if only some of the customers in the network start using electric vehicles.