Rooftop Solar Charging

[E90400K]

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

It's more that I live on the north face of a 1,800 foot mountain in a 200 year old house at 860 feet above sea level. I don't get enough sun exposure and the roof system would not hold the weight of panels without significant reconstruction.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

For instance if a 1 kWh array costs $1500 then let me buy that portion and get the yield from it for 25 years.

Why not buy your own 1kW array instead?

It's more that I live on the north face of a 1,800 foot mountain in a 200 year old house at 860 feet above sea level. I don't get enough sun exposure and the roof system would not hold the weight of panels without significant reconstruction.

Ground mount ftw and please stop being so pessimistic already I mean sheesh.

 

[E90400K]

Ground mount ftw and please stop being so pessimistic already I mean sheesh.

Ground mounted would then be in the flood plain. Would look seriously ugly in the picturesque setting of a 250 year old homestead. And take a lot of cabling to get to a battery house for storage, even if enough radiation would reach the panels in winter.

I calculate a 30 year payback. I'll be dead by then. Lol.

Not sure why assessing and dealing with physical limitations of the site is being pessimistic.

 

[KevinRS]

The amount of space available on a vehicle isn't sufficient for charging the vehicle in a meaningful way, especially when balanced against the weight and drag.

For the distance travelled by the OP daily, look into the possibility of level 1 charging. Overnight charging should add 20-50 miles.

Some states are actually starting to allow plug in solar charging like most of Europe. Still going to be limited, can't put more than ~15 amps at 120v into your house through a standard outlet, so those systems will be somewhere below that 1.8 kw limit.

 

[RetiredOnPaper]

I put together a DIY solar generator at our weekend cabin. (Not tied into the grid, total separate system.) Mostly for running security cams, some lights, tool charging, etc. I built it for smiles and giggles but added a couple of panels recently. I will be adding an outdoor plug for EV level 1 charging. This will be my summer "feeding station" for my Slate. Based on experience with my Tesla, I should get about 30 to 40 miles/day. (Sunny days with "pass thru" from the system battery.) Usually go into town about every 3 days, 30 mile round trip.

Keep in mind that the BMS will not allow charging while under power. So what is the point of carrying around a solar panel? This is a pick up not an Aptera (Or Telo, who is thinking about this.) Also; I live in Michigan...not the Sunshine state.

 

[Ronnie]

Look into what the school bus conversion (skoolie) people do with solar. Many are fully capable with heat air conditioning, and home appliances. I expect i should be able to level 1 charge from bus. Plus i am setting up a trailer with solar, should have enough room for 2000 watts of solar. Used panels are cheap. The cost is batteries, and charge controllers. As for doing on the Slate , well it would be an interesting experiment if you lived in a sunny state. Put flexible panels on the hood, roof, and suv top. Real world gain would be 400 watts. 5 hours is what is used as daylight average for solar, so 2kw a day. By the way 400 watts are based on being able to get 800 watts of panels on it. Because of sun angle you lose about half compared to tilting the panels at 90 degrees to the sun

 

[GaRailroader]

Why not buy your own 1kW array instead?

I already have a 6.3 kW array, I am facing diminishing returns. Due to the way Georgia Power handles net metering and not actually paying you for electricity that you send to the grid, most of the electricity I would generate out of a 1 kW expansion of my array would be credited at 6.5 cents per kWh. At that price, I’d prefer to keep my $1500 and buy electricity from Georgia Power for 6.5 cents per kWh.(that is fuel plus Super Off Peak rate)

I think the community solar programs are more aimed at apartment, condo, townhouse dwellers that aren’t permitted to have an array installed. (Or Francis who lives on the north side of a mountain.)

 

[E90400K]

I already have a 6.3 kW array, I am facing diminishing returns. Due to the way Georgia Power handles net metering and not actually paying you for electricity that you send to the grid, most of the electricity I would generate out of a 1 kW expansion of my array would be credited at 6.5 cents per kWh. At that price, I’d prefer to keep my $1500 and buy electricity from Georgia Power for 6.5 cents per kWh.(that is fuel plus Super Off Peak rate)

I think the community solar programs are more aimed at apartment, condo, townhouse dwellers that aren’t permitted to have an array installed. (Or Francis who lives on the north side of a mountain.)

I guess some of us are just not as blessed .

We have a nuke plant some 50 miles away as the crow flies, whether I get juice from it, I don't know, nor do I care. I moved here 30 years ago for the aesthetic of mountains and forest land; a few power poles and wires are much more pleasing to my eye than a grid of black PV panels.

It's all good.

 

[AeroWolf]

I remember listening to infomercial lectures about these community renewable energy initiatives by local utilities. They try to convince you to pay significantly more money for your power, on the promise that they would increase percentage of power coming from renewable sources.

These deals always fell into highly dubious, but not quite outright scam territory. They were never good deals, and mostly allowed power utility providers to capitalize on getting buyers to pay for maintaining facilities (that could be classified as renewable like very small river hydro) that only existed for the utility to capture existing state/fed subsidies, but did not provide meaningful power.