Rooftop Solar Charging

[Adam W]

Well, dang. That's not the math I want to hear, but perhaps you're exactly right. I would love to harvest my own power, using equipment I own, but I may have to face facts that it doesn't make sense for me.

Not sure the power situation in Utah, but my local utility here in Washington has an option to get 100% of our electrical needs from a central solar farm. No need for investing in panels on your own home, and perfect for renters. Yes, its not "off your own roof" so to speak, but for an extra $5 - $10 a month, you get the peace of mind of going solar without the $20,000+ up-front capital investment.

I actually did put a rooftop solar array on my home 10 years ago, but that was back when there were many more tax, rebate, and production-credit incentives to do so. Today, the economies have shifted dramatically towards these types of green energy farms as being a better solution.

 

[thespacecowboy]

Worksport makes a solar tonneau cover intended to charge a battery bank
https://www.worksport.com/products/solis

It looks like in one of their investor packets they included a rendering of a Slate with their tonneau cover.

 

[JustChris]

If I could get a polished solution like this, I'd probably HAVE to get one. I want a hard-sided tonneau cover, anyway, so it's a big win to have that serve a dual purpose for harvesting power.

 

[thespacecowboy]

That company has actually released solar tonneau covers for the other trucks they showed, priced at ~$1700 it looks like. Not terrible for a hard tonneau cover, especially one claiming to do ~600W of solar. It's not meant to charge the truck, really, but to charge an external battery/inverter to provide A/C power for camping supplies, tools, etc. For the right person, could be fantastic.

 

[E90400K]

Not sure the power situation in Utah, but my local utility here in Washington has an option to get 100% of our electrical needs from a central solar farm. No need for investing in panels on your own home, and perfect for renters. Yes, its not "off your own roof" so to speak, but for an extra $5 - $10 a month, you get the peace of mind of going solar without the $20,000+ up-front capital investment.

I actually did put a rooftop solar array on my home 10 years ago, but that was back when there were many more tax, rebate, and production-credit incentives to do so. Today, the economies have shifted dramatically towards these types of green energy farms as being a better solution.

You are kidding, right?

 

[fbthpg]

I haven't seen this specific setup covered in this forum. Apologies if I've missed it.

I'm very seriously considering installing a collapsible solar panel array (500-600 watts) on the roof of the Slate, and collecting the power in a stand-alone battery generator, with the intent of dumping the stored charge into my Slate via Level 2 charging every day or two.

I'm not an engineer, but I am a technician, and pretty good at electro-mechanical DIY. I also acknowledge that there's a wealth of smart people in this forum, and I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions about this idea.

Use-Case: My daily commute is about 16 to 20 miles, mostly freeway. I'm thinking about attaching the solar panels in a collapsible or folding configuration, using Slate's roof rack, either with or without SUV kit. I haven't decided what standalone generator to use, and I'm open to a piecemeal approach if that's more economical or efficient. I'm thinking of putting the equipment in the frunk.

Tell me your thoughts! Any and all comments are welcome and appreciated.

I was thinking of something similar, and I have a very similar commute. That said, for weight reduction, less drag, and higher solar efficiency, I am building a portable system with in my backyard that charges a battery bank in my garage.
You likely don’t need permits if it’s not tied to you home/grid electrical and the solar isn’t mounted to your roof.

 

[sodamo]

Have to admit, some entertainment value here.

 

[sodamo]

Would highly recommend if you don’t already have solar and thinking this is cost effective, please do a cost benefit analysis. For some yes, for others No.

 

[Adam W]

You are kidding, right?

You'll have to be more specific about what you're objecting to.

 

[E90400K]

You'll have to be more specific about what you're objecting to.

Does the utility provide an explanation how it can direct electricity to your home that was only generated at a solar energy generating plant? Based on my somewhat educated understanding of the national electrical and local electrical grids, I'm not sure it is possible. If you can point me to the utilities' website I'd like to review the program. Thanks.

 

[E90400K]

Would highly recommend if you don’t already have solar and thinking this is cost effective, please do a cost benefit analysis. For some yes, for others No.

I've done a cost benefit analysis, and it doesn't work out for my home's location.

 

[sodamo]

I've done a cost benefit analysis, and it doesn't work out for my home's location.

Unless one already has a robust system, I suspect that would be true for most.

 

[Adam W]

Does the utility provide an explanation how it can direct electricity to your home that was only generated at a solar energy generating plant? Based on my somewhat educated understanding of the national electrical and local electrical grids, I'm not sure it is possible. If you can point me to the utilities' website I'd like to review the program. Thanks.

It's a matching program, audited by the state and 3rd parties, where solar energy is put into the same grid as all other sources. So you're correct, the actual electrons don't travel from the solar farm to your house. But the amount of electricity you use is allocated and reserved from the pool generated by the farm.

Looks like they've reached capacity for the time being, so the program isn't accepting any new customers at the moment until a new solar project goes online later this year, but here's the site: PSE Solar Choice, and the FAQ. And an older version of the page before they closed the program to new customers from the Wayback Machine.

In any case, there's other programs where you can specify that you want the electricity you use to be allocated from other green sources, wind, hydro, etc. I doubt Washington is the only state offering options like this.

 

[sodamo]

It's a matching program, audited by the state and 3rd parties, where solar energy is put into the same grid as all other sources. So you're correct, the actual electrons don't travel from the solar farm to your house. But the amount of electricity you use is allocated and reserved from the pool generated by the farm.

Looks like they've reached capacity for the time being, so the program isn't accepting any new customers at the moment until a new solar project goes online later this year, but here's the site: PSE Solar Choice, and the FAQ. And an older version of the page before they closed the program to new customers from the Wayback Machine.

In any case, there's other programs where you can specify that you want the electricity you use to be allocated from other green sources, wind, hydro, etc. I doubt Washington is the only state offering options like this.

Sounds like a marketing approach to get more money.

 

[GaRailroader]

Sounds like a marketing approach to get more money.

I think these community solar arrangements are supposed to work by letting you buy/rent/subscribe to a portion of the community solar site then you get that share of its output. So for instance, if I was subscribing to 1/100th of a community solar array then I get 1/100th of its output for a given month credited to my bill.

I took a quick glance at the community solar offered by Georgia Power and the subscription is $25 for 1 kWh share of an array. This seems a bit steep. I think my array is about 6.5 kWh and on the best month of the year I get about $175 worth of electricity from it. That would be break even. My array is paid for but I am estimating it will take about 10 years to get enough benefit from it to pay for my investment. It doesn’t appear the subscription goes away. To make community solar valuable they need to price it amortized over 25 years or let you buy your share and stop paying. For instance if a 1 kWh array costs $1500 then let me buy that portion and get the yield from it for 25 years.