Solar Charging For Electric Cars

Buy The Equipment Needed To Charge Your Electric Car With Solar

Of course you cant just stick five solar panels on your roof and plug them into your car. You need a solar panel system and all the equipment that goes with it.

A typical solar EV charging setup would include the following:

• Solar panels on your roof, mounted on metal racks and attached to the roof deck
• Either a central string inverter that combines the DC output of the solar panels to AC, or micro-inverters that convert each panels output to AC and send it to a combiner box that connects to your main AC panel
• A Level 2 EV charger

How Big Is Your Electric Vehicle Battery

One of the key things to suss out before installing a solar panel system is how much electricity your car will consume. As a general rule, the bigger the battery, the more energy itll eat away.

To give you an idea of how many miles you can get out of different sized batteries, weve outlined a few examples below.

Data from Tonik

Save Even More Money With A Solar Ev Charging Station

Solar energy and electric vehicles are in the same vein when it comes to sustainable options for your home and lifestyle. Combining the two together is like an ultimate commitment to sustainability and also will save you a ton of money in the long run.

While solar panels have been around for a while, solar-powered EV chargers are a new technology. And we think theyre the future of charging electric vehicles. They not only save you money on your electrical bills but also help the environment by using renewable solar energy.

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Why Use Solar Panels To Charge Your Electric Car

Solar panels are an excellent option for charging your electric vehicle if you care about saving money, greater reliability, and helping the environment while youre at it.

Low Cost

Solar panel charging costs money upfront. Youll need to install an integrated system or connect to your existing solar panels, which can be pricey.

However, solar power is typically much less expensive in the long run. Solar power is an excellent cost-saving alternative because energy costs for grid power are predicted to rise every year.

More Reliable

The sun isnt going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, there are cloudy days, but a combination solar panel & battery system is a reliable energy source.

The energy grid has become more unreliable over the years and has been experiencing sustained outages throughout the country.

A solar-powered system with batteries to charge your EV at anytime can protect you from those utility power outages and rising electric-rate costs.

Better For The Environment

Many people purchase electric vehicles for a better environmental footprint. But if youre charging your EV using the grid, you still rely on coal and gas-powered energy.

Solar panels allow you to use an entirely clean energy source to power your electric car. Youll be taking power from the sun rather than fossil fuels, significantly reducing your carbon footprint.

Sono App: Mobility And Energy Services

We offer a variety of services with the Sion, combining innovative mobility with sustainablity. Your smartphone enables you to share your Sion, electricity, or even a ride. The Sono app is also your digital key for the Sion and the window to real-time vehicle data. The Vehicle Connectivity Module controls our vehicle’s data connection, as well as the automatic emergency call service eCall.

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A Guide To Solar Panel Ev Charging Points

You can break even on solar panels and an EV charging point in 12 years

A home charging point typically costs £950

Fill in the form at the top of the page for charging point quotes

Solar panels and electric vehicles are a match made in heaven its a partnership that will leave you with a smaller carbon footprint and more money in the bank.

If you already own an electric vehicle , youll have noticed more and more places to charge your car popping up across the UK. You can now find them at workplaces, on residential streets, and in town centres, public car parks, and motorway service stations.

But although this is fantastic news for EV owners, home charging points might be an even better option and were here to show you why.

Fill in this quick form to see how much a home charging point would cost you.

What Else Should You Bear In Mind While Considering A Solar

Essentially, you need a solar inverter that can convert the solar panels AC output to usable DC for the EV. Also, you require a battery to store the energy produced by your solar panels if you are planning on charging your EV during the night. With a home battery storage option, such as the Tesla Powerwall 2, you can store nearly 13.5 kWh of energy. Make sure that you choose a battery that can support your mileage requirements.

Furthermore, you will need a charger and dedicated charging station either in your garage or driveway, where you can plug in the car. It is recommended to use level 2 type chargers. It will help you cut down on the charging time. Note that there are multiple options in the market, such as the 30.2 kwh li-ion battery that can make a car go 312 km on a single charge. Apart from powering the car, the single charge can also show TFT driver information, power the rear AC vents, and access the internet through an inbuilt connectivity system. You further get e-break distribution, anti-lock braking system , ISOFIX package, and child safety door locks.

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Faqs About Electric Vehicles & Solar Ev Charging Stations

Electric cars use electricity stored in a battery pack to power the electric motor. Since battery electric vehicles are run entirely on electricity, they are also called all-electric vehicles. While electric vehicles dont produce tailpipe pollution, the electricity they use could be produced from a coal- or gas-powered power plant.

UCSUSA research shows that battery electric cars that charge off the gas-dominated grid still produce less pollution than their gas-powered counterparts, while BEVs powered by renewable energy sources are virtually emission free. To find out how you can pair your electric vehicle to a solar panel system and be completely energy independent, call us at 516-837-3459.

An electric car charging station starts around $499, with installation costs between $300-$1,000 depending on the charger and electrical upgrades required. ClipperCreek, Leviton, Bosch, ChargePoint, eMotoWerks, Delta, and Siemens offer home charging stations. NYS and PSEGLI have incentives for charging stations. The current PSEGLI rebate is $500- about half the cost of an installed charger!

Our solar systems convert direct current to alternating current , which is the form of electricity that both your home and electric vehicle use. If you already have a solar system you only need to purchase an electric vehicle charging station in order to route the power from your solar panels to your electric vehicle via a charging port.

Charge Your Electric Car With Solar Energy

Unlike a regular car, electric cars dont produce any emissions. Which is why they are cleaner and greener for the planet. In over a year, just one electric car on the road can save an average 1.5 million grams of CO2. So there is no surprise why the UK are banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030, hoping for an all electric UK.

One in four UK households intend to buy an electric car in the next five years. Despite this figure, Ofgem research indicates that 36% of households are worried about having nowhere to charge their electric vehicle close to home. Although more places to charge your EV are popping up across the UK, none are more convenient than a home charging point, installed at your front door.

With no tailpipe, Research by the European Energy Agency found that, even with ev charging, the carbon emissions of an electric car are around 17 30% lower to that of a petrol or diesel car. The emissions from ev charging can also be cleaner, when a low carbon electricity source is used. Such as Solar PV Panels.

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Do You Need Home Solar Batteries To Store Energy For Ev Charging

Many people worry that theyll need a battery such as the Tesla Powerwall to store solar energy they will later use to charge their EV. Were here to tell you thats not necessary, and it may not even be very practical.

Take the Tesla Model 3: depending on which version you choose, it will have a battery of between 54 and 82 kWh. You would need between 4 and 6 Powerwalls in order to store enough energy to fill the cars battery from stored solar energy. Those Powerwalls would cost you at least $30,000, in addition to the cost of solar panels and a car.

Luckily, its not necessary to drop 30 Gs on sleek home batteries. First, you wont often need to charge the full battery in one go. Second, youll likely get net metering benefits, meaning you earn credit for extra solar energy that you send to the grid during the day, which you draw from when charging your car at night. With net metering, the grid acts as your battery.

As an added bonus, net metering and TOU billing can combine to make solar car charging a heck of a good deal. When your solar panels make electricity during the day, you earn net metering credits at the higher daytime prices, and are then able to charge the car at the low overnight prices. Its the best of both worlds!

How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Ev

The short answer is it takes anywhere between 5 and 12 solar panels to charge an EV, but it depends on so many factors. Lets keep going with our Tesla Model Y scenario to see how it plays out.

We know we need 9.96 kWh of electricity a day to charge, so now we can work backward to find out how many solar panels it takes to generate that amount of electricity.

First, lets figure out how many kWh of electricity a single panel can produce per day. This is number varies based on the wattage of the panel and the hours of daylight it receives per day, but the formula is very simple.

Hours of daylight per day x wattage = Watt-hours per day

Divide Watt-hours by 1,000 to get kilowatt hours and you now have the daily output of a solar panel.

Solar panel outputs range from 250 to 400 Watts, but these days its pretty rare for an installer in the solar.com network to offer anything less than 360 Watts. In fact, 400W is now considered standard. But lets use a 360W panel as our baseline just to be conservative.

The average number of sun hours per day ranges from 3.5 to 6 in the US, but most of the country averages 4.5 hours a day or more. Well use with 4.5 to be conservative.

4.5 hours of sun per day x 360 Watts = 1,620 Watts per day, or 1.62 kWh per day

Finally, divide the kilowatt hours of electricity needed by the daily kWh output of each panel to get the number of panels needed to charge.

9.69 kWh per day / 1.62 kWh per panel per day = 5.98 panels

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Charge Your Electric Car With Cost

Solar power is the cheapest form of electricity today. Therefore, it also makes financial sense to charge your electric car with solar power – preferably from your own photovoltaic system. This means that your electric car will not only run on green electricity, but also on extremely cost-effective electricity.

Due to the cost advantage you have when charging, the electric car pays for itself even faster. Incidentally, in the long term, electric cars will achieve further price advantages over cars with combustion engines because they require less maintenance.

Solar Ev Charging Explained

When you own an electric vehicle any standard 120-volt outlet can be the source of a few more miles. This may work in a pinch, and if you have time to burn, but its just not efficient. A 120-volt outlet will only add about 4 miles per hour and take a full 8-16 hours to fully charge.

Its best to upgrade to a Level 2 EV charger for home use. This type of charger is the most common, and adds 20-30 miles per hour and takes 6-8 hours to recharge a fully electric vehicle or about 1 hour to fully charge a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle .

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How Can I Charge My Electric Vehicle With Rooftop Solar Panels

Our solar systems convert direct current to alternating current . This is the form of electricity that your home and electric vehicle use. If you already have a solar system you only need to purchase an home electric vehicle charging station. It will route the power from your solar panels to your electric vehicle via a charging port.

How Many Solar Panels Would It Take To Charge A Tesla

As pointed out above, the number of panels needed for charging your electric vehicle will depend on the size of your vehicles battery. However, to consider this question, well use the standard Tesla Model S as a baseline for estimates. This Tesla has a battery with a 75-kWh capacity. Your specific needs for your particular car may be different from this, but you can find that information on your manufacturers website.

To figure out how many panels you need to charge your EV, you have to know the amount of power each of your solar panels can produce. If you dont already have panels, Ill save you some time SunPower panels are the highest efficiency.

The average 250 W solar panel can generate around30-40 kWh of AC power each month. Lets make use of the lower number in our calculations.

Given that single, low output solar panel producesroughly 1 kWh per day of electrical power this indicates that you need toinstall as many as 75 solar panels to generate electricity to power your TeslaModel S each day assuming that you start the charging process with a batterytotally drained of electricity.

However, since the average driver will travelapproximately 37 miles a day this translates to roughly 12 kWh ofelectricity. With that in mind, a much more realistic set would requireapproximately 12 solar panels. Also, even this is a conservative estimatethats based on the use of low output solar panels.

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Everyones Solar Ev Charging Situation Is Different

As you can see, the exact number of panels it takes to charge an EV depends on four major factors:

Lets run through some more scenarios to see how the numbers change. First, well tweak the fuel efficiency of the EV to see how that changes the number of panels needed by comparing the very efficient Tesla Model Y with the terribly inefficient 2014 Toyota RAV4 EV.

*Figures are rounded up to the next whole panel.

When it comes to charging an EV with solar panels, everyones situation is different. But there is one constant: charging an EV with solar is the cheapest available option.

Lets explore that a little further.

Can I Use A Portable Charger To Charge An Electric Car

Electric cars like Tesla usually contain a high-power battery which requires a supercharger station to charge the car in general. Electric cars usually store the batterys power, and therefore, it is important to have available charge stations whenever required for a refill. Although a portable charger seems like a good plan, its not practical to charge large batteries like Tesla electric cars.

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Level 3 Charging Speed

Also known as DC fast charging youll find these most often at public charging stations. This is because they charge faster than any other level charger, so you can get back on the road quickly. Level 3 chargers add 40-50+ miles per hour and in under 30 minutes you can charge up to 80% of your battery.

But Lets Say You Can It Still Wouldnt Matter

Our example solar is only generating 400W of DC power. Assuming it only loses 20% being converted to AC as it goes through the inverter that the Mobile Charger is plugged into, thats 320W, or less than 10% of what the Mobile Charger wants.

Assuming it even works at that minimal output, your 40 hours of charge time just went to 400+ hours. Your extra 2 miles of range per charge-hour dropped to 0.2 miles.

Considering it would take those same 400W solar panels about 2-4 hours of decent sun to fully charge one 200Ah 12V auxiliary battery, and that any attempt to charge your EV off that battery would suck it dry so fast as to be pointless, I wont even do the math to sort that scenario out. But I used Renogys Solar Sizing Calculator to see what theyd recommend for a system:

So, just to power Fords Mobile Charger at the minimum level under ideal conditions, youd want around 24,000W of solar panels and about 125 deep cycle 12V batteries.

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Solar Panels For Ev Charging

Installing solar panels on the roof of your house is a great way to generate your own power for charging an EV. While the amount of solar panels needed to charge an EV depends on the size of the car’s battery, about 10 panels should generate enough electricity to charge a car with an average-sized battery.

Its important to remember that the solar panels cannot store electricity themselves, meaning whatever the panels generate must be used immediately by devices plugged in at home, or else it’ll be returned to the grid.