The Role of Renewable Energy Generation in Electric Vehicles Transition and Decarbonization of Transportation Sector

Abstract

Electric vehicles are the future of the transport sector. The massive transition from traditional passenger vehicles to electric vehicles will play an important role in the decarbonization of the transport sector and moving toward zero emissions. The main problem will be the generation source of electricity to charge the huge fleet of future electric vehicles. Hence clean and renewable energy sources will play a vital role in making electric vehicles carbon-free. In this paper, the impact of the carbon dioxide emission factor of power systems on electric vehicles has been studied in detail. A carbon dioxide emission comparison has been done for traditional passenger vehicles and electric vehicles. The study has been carried out for three Italian regions, the Tuscany Region, Sicily Region, and Sardinia Region having low, medium, and high carbon dioxide emission factors of power systems respectively, with different penetration levels of electric vehicles. An ideal scenario with 100 percent renewable energy sources and an extreme Scenario with 0 percent renewable energy sources in the power system has also been studied for electric vehicles' role in the decarbonization of the transport sector. The result obtained in this study showed that renewable energy sources in the future power grids will have a significant impact in making electric vehicles zero-emissions cars and many European Union goals of making the transport sector zero carbon cannot be achieved without making the future power system grids renewable.