4 ms·
Ask HN: How do a charge my EV directly from solar panels?
He all,
So I may have have a rather strange question, but I’m not able to find the answer myself, hopefully there is some solar panel knowledge here!
My girlfriend and myself are currently planning a trip where we will drive from Europe to South Africa and back with an existing electric car which would take approximately one year. We want to show the world what is possible driving an electric car; even big adventures can be green.
We want to install solar panels on the car, but this would not generate enough electricity for continues driving, therefor we will bring roughly 25m2 (~5kW) of solar panels with us to charge the car 4 to 5 hours a day.
My question is, what would technically the best way to setup the charge of 25m2 of solar panels?
If we use the solar panels to charge a battery which will be converted to 230v to charge the car, we will ruin the battery if we need to do this for a year. Is it possible to charge the car directly with solar panels without a battery in between? If so, which systems would be capable of supporting this?
Find us at Instagram: 4x4electric
- speedgoose 5y agoI guess you have heard of someone doing it in a Nissan Leaf : http://electric-explorer.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=13&cntnt01origid=2&cntnt01returnid=4 http://electric-explorer.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,det... The Hyundai IONIQ 5 has optional solar panels on the roof to charge the battery. Maybe this system can be hacked to put bigger solar panels but perhaps it wouldn't handle a lot more power.
- mkeespiet 5y agoWe did not know it was already done, but thanks for sharing!
- gabrielsroka 5y agoSee also https://lightyear.one/ https://lightyear.one/
- mkeespiet 5y agoWe are already in contact with Lightyear, but the car itself is not suitable for the trip..
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- view 5y agoThat sounds incredible! Do you have a YouTube channel? I can't really answer your question but there's some videos of people doing portable solar: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=portable+solar+tesla https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=portable+solar+...
- mkeespiet 5y agoWe do have a Youtube channel, but no movies yet: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0s5M8KKBsXyLbg9_fFVVA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0s5M8KKBsXyLbg9_fFVVA I found the same videos, but they all use only a couple of solar panels..
- jpl56 5y agoThanks, just subscribed to it, looking forward to watching your adventures