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bought 2013 volt recently, i am huge enthusiast for green tech, and has been using the chargepoint network for couple of weeks and very satisfied. i wanna do more but kinda lost.
my field is sw engineering which is bit different. wondering what is the stake for partnership with green tech charging company to come up with completely off-the-grid station with battery and ev station charger? Most charging stations seem to be connected to the grid except for tesla superchargers.
Here in Canada, it is common to see a wind powered charging station at a mall that is connected to a ground level outlet. Or at a commuter parking lot, along a light rail line.
The Province of Ontario produced about 50 percent of our electric power from nuclear and or wind/solar power.. the other 50 percent is from hydro generation using water falls and or river side generators. No coal use at all.
A further point...Here in Ontario, a fully electric vehicle pays no sales tax upon purchase instead of 15 percent on the cost of the car, and the annual license plate costs $10, instead of $85 .
The Ontario green vehicle plate is white background with green letters and numbers. Many retail malls have "green car " parking spots, with designated signs.
Green cars also can use the HOV lanes, even if there is only one person in the car, not the usual "two or more people ".
So, yes we are encouraging the population to buy and use 'all electric cars " here in Ontario.
Most charging stations seem to be connected to the grid except for tesla superchargers.
Per Tesla, all their Superchargers are grid tied. Solar energy systems are more for the lighting, system operations, and other ancillary services including net metering, but the chargers themselves are on the grid. That is why if there is a power failure, your Tesla system will alert you that a specific station is out of service.
You would need at least a 20 KW solar array to recharge that volt in any meaningful amount of time. Batteries would make it smaller but less efficient.
bought 2013 volt recently, i am huge enthusiast for green tech, and has been using the chargepoint network for couple of weeks and very satisfied. i wanna do more but kinda lost.
my field is sw engineering which is bit different. wondering what is the stake for partnership with green tech charging company to come up with completely off-the-grid station with battery and ev station charger? Most charging stations seem to be connected to the grid except for tesla superchargers.
An off-grid photovoltaic system charging a battery bank, to then charge your car?
We have a photovoltaic system charging a battery bank powering our house. My wife wants to buy a plug-in hybrid car. It takes a lot of time to get a battery bank up to float charging [98% state-of-charge]. When you plug in a car you would likely suck that state-of-charge down to 70% very quick. To allow your battery bank to go any lower than 70% SOC you slide into the area of risking damage to the batteries.
I am not sure how much total wattage you need for a car to run. Keep in mind that charging the battery bank you lose 20% in transfer losses, just getting the power into the battery bank.
Then when transferring that power from the battery bank to the automobile you will lose some in stepping up the voltage and conditioning it to suit the automobile. Then another 20% of the power will be lost as it goes into the automobile.
If you allowed the power to go into the automobile directly from the photovoltaic's and inverter, you would retain a lot more of the power. But the charging process might easily take 8 hours.
Another consideration is the OP is making it sound like they are talking a "charging station" for multi use. If that's the case, people are not going to wait around (unless they are really using it for parking) for some solar/battery system to recharge from the last user so they can recharge their vehicle.
Now if this is for limited use, (dedicated to a single user or a controlled group) where you are not having various users plugging in because they need a charge, you can do some solar/battery system. But if you're looking at an open demand system like the Superchargers, Blink, ChargePoint, etc., probably not doable simply because the system most likely can't generate enough or hold as much as quickly as these stations need it.
You would need at least a 20 KW solar array to recharge that volt in any meaningful amount of time. Batteries would make it smaller but less efficient.
20KW is the rate of energy accumulation also another variable is also capability of the station to hold charge (KWh). If you got bigger battery pack with slower accumulation rate it can still be usable. I think it is all about finding that magic number. Lets say for 5 days nobody uses the station now it is able to accumulate all 5 days of charge and that would be good instead of bypassing that energy input due to lesser storage capability.
Another consideration is the OP is making it sound like they are talking a "charging station" for multi use. If that's the case, people are not going to wait around (unless they are really using it for parking) for some solar/battery system to recharge from the last user so they can recharge their vehicle.
Now if this is for limited use, (dedicated to a single user or a controlled group) where you are not having various users plugging in because they need a charge, you can do some solar/battery system. But if you're looking at an open demand system like the Superchargers, Blink, ChargePoint, etc., probably not doable simply because the system most likely can't generate enough or hold as much as quickly as these stations need it.
I'd rather see this popup in public locations. Now this is a challenge considering many technical engineering limitations other folkds here mentioned however the ideas with bigger storage I 'd wish it to be possible. This could be economically expensive however once setup, it is one time setup/installation that never needs maintenance (substantial) and non-renewable energy. Obviously people are not going to wait for their turn in this type of installation but more like being used for nightly charge or long term parking. Waiting is not an option considering how long it is done rather if driver sees open slot go ahead and claim or just bypass for next opportunity. Therefore, its location is best suited for not the gas station like location rather to be installed where people are going to spend longer hours: shopping malls, grocery etc.,
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