Would a portable solar generator work?

I'll bet your friend was thinking of a gasoline generator, not a solar array.

Every day, every time you drive?

Yes. Lots of folks power their entire house and charge their EV with a system mounted on the roof of the house. The roof of a car is too small.

Janie: I think that if you do not have a convenient way to plug the car in whenever you are at home, you'd be better off to get a non-plug Prius. Once you have a permanent home with plug-in capability, that will be the time to consider a PiP.

 

Can you plug it in at work?

 

How about this?: Since I can't post the url because I haven't posted 5 times yet. then google this: Gm Solar Island Tree

 

If she can convince her landlord to install a 1130 sq ft array to shadow about 4 Prius Plug-In parking spots yeah that would be perfect. If it can recharge a Volt in 4 - 6 hours as a level 2 charger, it can certainly recharge 4 PiPs in a round robin sort of way. I can imagine it would be pretty expensive. Maybe the landlord can charge a little bit more but it would be a certain distinguishing draw.

 

Yes, if it can charge a Chevy Volt which has about 10.5KW of usable energy, it can certainly charge a PiP with only about 2.6 or 3 KW of usable energy.

As for cost, it's probably similar to the cost of the PiP itself, so it won't really be practical for you.

 

This 6x16 foot unit is 'portable' only by truck for GM's traveling exhibit. For all other uses, it is intended to be mounted on a concrete footing five feet into the ground.

It is intended to recharge a Volt in a day in ideal conditions. In my climate and shading conditions, it would recharge a PiP on the sunniest winter days, but not on average winter days. Results in your location will be different, but you haven't provided enough detail to guess how much different.

I don't see any hints on cost, but I already know it won't even pay for itself at today's gas and grid electricity prices.

 

also, most EV cars will NOT charge while driving.

 

Since it's sold as a Volt charger, I'd definitely confirm with the company if it would work with a PIP before assuming so. "Level 1" and "Level 2" charging points are pretty standard I think, but because I'm sure it's expensive I'd want to confirm before buying. And since Janie seems to only want something for short-term use, until moving to another place, that makes the cost even harder to justify.

Janie, did you look at this list of public charging points that I mentioned before? I really can't see the point of buying a plug-in car unless you have access to a place to plug it in conveniently enough that you can charge it every day, or almost every day.

 

How about this? I was looking trying to find if these things are really available, or just "demonstration" units, and what they cost.

I haven't found a price on the smaller single-vehicle charger yet, but that big multi-car solar tree array starts at around $150,000 (with discounts for larger quantities).

This price comes from here.

 

It would be far less costly for any landlord to trench and install power outlets in several spaces than the cost of this solar "feel good" array.

 

Yeah, you're right. Let's keep on burning fossil fuels to power our PIP's because the "power outlets in several spaces" still get their "power" from the coal fired power plants.

 

Solar panels take years to pay for themselves even when you connect them to the grid and use their maximum available power all day long, every day. These charging stations, if they're not tied to the grid and their power only gets used when someone is charging from them, don't seem to make a lot of sense. That big single-pole mounting system has got to be expensive, too. It would make more sense to tie the solar panels to the grid, so their full potential gets used all day and every day, and also provide charging points tied to the grid, that work day and night in all weather.

 

The money to buy those solar trees would have a far greater impact on global warming if put elsewhere.

One better example is to put the panels on a roof to feed into the grid fulltime, as Gary suggests, and add power outlets in the parking lots as mitch suggests. This will do far more good. But there are better options still.

 

good point. connect the solar tree to the grid when they're not charging pip's or volt's or leaf's, testla's or coda's Shouldn't be too hard to switch from grid to car charging and back.

 

Part of that will depend on where you want to put it. If you have a large parking area, with limited power, installing to tap into the power could mean new conduits and running them through the lot areas. My previous company did surveillance cameras and while the camera was cheap, installing in lots were often 30K per pole because of the costs of wiring ripping up the lots etc. The nice about these is they are self-contained so highly movable and a snap to install.

Of if you own your "parking spot" but the HOA does not want to install power for an EV. If you own your spot then in Cali.. these could be interesting as a law prohibits them from stopping solar installs
California Civil Code Section 714 - California Attorney Resources - California Laws

 

Yes, if these are put where people are parked all day every day (like at work), they may make some sense. At apartments, where people are parked mostly at night, not so much sense.

I wonder if these already have a grid tie option, that may be worthwhile given the cost of these things, even if it adds 30K to the cost. And if people are really depending on these things to charge their batteries to get home, I'd think they would want the comfort of knowing there's backup utility power for cloudy days.

 

Lucky for me, my apartment I live in, the electricity is included in my rent. And the parking spot that is assigned to me has a 120 volt 20 amp terminal next to it. It's tied to the parking lights that come on when the sun sets, so electricity is only available at night. And I'm only 2.7 miles from work. There is a charging port at Consumers energy 1 mile from where I work so I'm all set. :rockon:

 

As fuzzy1 suggests above, the more practical thing, if the landlord is willing to install PVs, is to put them on the roof of the building to supply some or all of the building's power, which would include, but not be limited to, charging EVs

If there is open space, such as an uncovered parking area, it would probably be cheaper to build a roof over it and install PVs there, again for the building as a whole, including but not limited to EV charging, rather than buying that "solar tree" gadget.

In either case, the PVs could be grid-tied, increasing their benefit to the environment, since they could then be used for peak shaving.