A hybrid wind-photovoltaic power generation system based on the foldable umbrella mechanism for applications on highways.

• A wind-PV system for powering electrical facilities on highways is proposed. • The system is installed in the medians of highways to avoid occupying extra land. • The system is foldable for easy deployment and self-protection. • Estimation results show that the annual generation of the system reaches 356 GWh. In this paper, a portable wind-photovoltaic power generation system (WPPGS) based on the foldable umbrella mechanism is presented. The proposed WPPGS is installed in the medians of highways, and it can simultaneously capture the solar energy and wind energy produced by running vehicles. The studied system mainly consists of three submodules: a solar harvesting module, a wind-energy-harvesting module and an energy storage module. The whole system is foldable for easy deployment and self-protection. The electricity generated by the wind and solar energy harvesting modules is stored in the energy storage module, which can supply power to the electrical facilities on highways. The Chengdu-Chongqing highway is selected for case study. Theoretical and simulation results show that the annual power generation of the solar harvesting sub-module, wind collection sub-module and entire WPPGS system deployed on all highways in Mainland China can be up to 155 GWh, 201 GWh and 356 GWh, respectively. Furthermore, the wind and solar-energy-harvesting subsystems have appropriate complementarity in time, which indicates that the WPPGS has excellent technical performance throughout the entire year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]