Using portable solar panel to charge...

[MrEnergyCzar]

If someone was going to use a portable solar system to charge the Volt, wouldn't it have to produce several thousand watts at least? What would be the requirements to do it? Is anyone doing it?

Thanks,

MrEnergyCzar

[fishmahn]

The 120v charger only chages at about 1KW (8amp * 120v = 960 watts). Don't know if it can operate at lower wattage than that.

Mike.

[tboult]

You would need at least 1kw.. (but a modified EVSE could go lower (the protocol allows down to 6amps..)
So you yould need something like
So you just need about 16 of these
http://www.earthtechproducts.com/sun...lar-panel.html

or
5 of these
http://www.dmsolar.com/solar-module-2.html

Which are only, 58.8"x39.37"x1.77", so you can carry them in the car (making it a 2 seater) and set them up somehow.

If you want to account for less than ideal setup angles, probably need 20% more than the minimum, or just 6 of the big panels or 20 of the flexible ones.

Oh and you'll need an inverter and a bit of connecting stuff as well. Finally the whole demand draw of the J1772 protocol is a bit of issue so you'd need some added batteries to provide a buffer.

I'm sure DCfusion could weigh in with more details.

[baragona]

You can't get a big enough portable system to charge a Volt......

My 3KW system (18 panels, that covers my whole roof) generates about 15 KWH per day.

One thing you have to calculate is that there are only 5 peak sunlight hours for solar generation in a day.

To generate the 10 KWH of electricity necessary to charge the Volt in a single day, you would need about a 2 KW system. That is 12 solar panels (3 ft X 6 ft).

[JBT]

baragona is right. I have 28 panels and today I generated 32 kilowatts. I estimate my panels at 1 kilowatt each per day, average, depending on weather conditions. It would take 10 to 12 panels to recharge our Volts and not exactly portable.

[frankydude]

My 2.3kW system is made of 10 panels of 230watts each. Each weights 45lbs. Not counting
The support weight. To carry them, I needed my 2010 Dodge Grand
Caravan (this is what a van is for). So a "portable" solar
panel system is not practical, but a fixed grid tied setup would
help nicely, plus provide shade to help the cars to stay
relatively cool.

Francois & Line
B2653 & C19249

[John_Hatchett]

I think you could get by with fewer panels during the summer, especially if you added a fairly simple tracker and got 10 hours on a summer day. Also by going with the higher effeciency panels, 300W, you might get 2.5kwh per panel during the summer and only need to cart around 6 panels instead of 12.

A pop up carport for 6 panels could be a pretty reasonable setup. you might have to manually adjust the panel orientation every couple of hours to get the 10 hours.

[bonaire]

You're talking about an off-grid solution (without battery backup) - I don't know if that ever makes economic sense. Grid tie (like in the other thread) is the way to go.

Portable - you need a consistent 2KW and that is about 10 of today's typical panels (or 8 high efficiency ones) and also an inverter sized properly and grounded properly. How is a non-grounded system going to work with the Volt's ground-touchy EVSE?

Get a one-two panel 12V trickle charger and charge the 12V AGM battery - that does "some" good but it's seriously not going to charge the EVSE through any sort of portable solar system. Unless you pull such as system in a trailer behind the volt and unfold it like the solar panels on a earth-orbiting satellite.

[John_Hatchett]

Kinda hard to do a "portable" grid tie system since most electric utilities still require an interconnect survey and inspection before connection to the grid.

[tboult]

Note my post was not about what it would take to get a fully charged volt.. yeah that's a lot of panels. Mine was about what it would take to get the current requirements to partially charge. On reflection I guess with big enough batteries one could use even a single 200wr/ pannel, gather power into the batteries, charge for a brief period of time at 1kw or so, then repeat. With 2 pannels or 4 folding 100w units, it would get 2kWh a day. I don't think its worth the hassle for say (4-8miles), but its probably doable and maybe if that was the difference between ICE and no ICE every day, wiht an employe that would not allow plugin, might be worth exploring.