Using Off Grid Solar System to charge Lightning?

[colonel K]

I have 9K watts of solar panels using net metering. Unfortunately, my utility has completely turned off allowing me to grow more panels.

I am thinking of purchasing a 48V, off grid setup to charge my Lightning. I can charge using a 120V AC plug or a 30A 220v Dryer type plug. The 120V only charges at about 1 mile/hour, so is virtually useless for my needs. I need about 100KWH per week for my around town use. This means I will need the 30A option. I would be building this system solely for charging my Lightning.

There are lots of options out there for, say, a 48V DC charge controller, battery and inverter. I'm not sure how to size it given that I can plug it in on most days when I am not driving it. I would also be storing the battery in the garage and I know that a LIFEPO4 batter needs to be conditioned to work.

Life cycle cost are also a consideration. I only pay 12.5 cents per KWH and plan to keep my lightning for at least 10 years. I will probably purchase another EV after this one. The ~25 year warranty on solar panels are a big factor in calculating life cycle costs.

My question to the forum is:: Has anyone attempted off grid solar for charging their EV? What is your experience?

Thanks.

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[colonel K]

Follow on question. Would it be possible to charge just using the variable DC output from solar panels? This would avoid batteries, charge controllers and inverters.

 

[adoublee]

My route would be to attempt to utilize the Delta hybrid inverter used for the home back-up system. It has 4 solar MPPTs with up to two strings per MPPT. Input voltage up to 480V DC is permitted so you be much more wire efficient than with a 48V DC system. Probably less conversion losses as well with the PV string voltage closer to the truck battery voltage. It may not be well supported, and the wholesaler is AEE is going out of business. Sunburn is of no use, and Ford takes no "ownership" of the product.

Or, take a look at Entligent product that can't be bought yet.

Neither route is inexpensive.

 

[Revenge]

What is the reason the utility company won't let you add more panels? Usually if you have a change to your usage such as EV charging you are allowed to increase the size.

 

[colonel K]

They are a rural electric utility, and have become hostile to adding solar panels.
They claim they have a contract with a company that will install a solar farm. Part of the contract is that they will face no solar competition across the utility..

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I have 9K watts of solar panels using net metering. Unfortunately, my utility has completely turned off allowing me to grow more panels.

I am thinking of purchasing a 48V, off grid setup to charge my Lightning. I can charge using a 120V AC plug or a 30A 220v Dryer type plug. The 120V only charges at about 1 mile/hour, so is virtually useless for my needs. I need about 100KWH per week for my around town use. This means I will need the 30A option. I would be building this system solely for charging my Lightning.

There are lots of options out there for, say, a 48V DC charge controller, battery and inverter. I'm not sure how to size it given that I can plug it in on most days when I am not driving it. I would also be storing the battery in the garage and I know that a LIFEPO4 batter needs to be conditioned to work.

Life cycle cost are also a consideration. I only pay 12.5 cents per KWH and plan to keep my lightning for at least 10 years. I will probably purchase another EV after this one. The ~25 year warranty on solar panels are a big factor in calculating life cycle costs.

My question to the forum is:: Has anyone attempted off grid solar for charging their EV? What is your experience?

Thanks.

There are DC to DC chargers. Solaredge makes an inverter with a charger integrated. You can look into that as one potential option.

I personally run a hybrid micro grid. I have a dedicated subpanel that is fed by Sunny Islands that create its own grid.

My DC panels go through Sunny Boy inverters as with a typical grid tied system. Instead of landing directly on the main panel or upstream near the meter, it lands on a dedicated subpanel. From there it is consumed or fed back to the grid.

Connected to that same subpanel are Sunny Island Hybrid inverters. These are DC connected to a battery bank - LifePo4, server rack style 45kW.

The Sunny Island and Sunny Boy inverters talk and have the ability to throttle as to not overload the grid feedback. The Sunny Island has the ability to control input from the solar, feed from the grid, feed from DC battery or communicate with a MPPT DC system that is designed to recharge the battery bank.

The DC bank never crosses to feed the grid, only to supply the panel. It works wonderfully well and I’ve got one of my chargers hooked up to this panel to store energy in the cars as well

 

[hturnerfamily]

iI sounds like any solar system for only charging an EV will be a VERY expensive option as compared to Utility costs/rates, especially if you have any 'Time of Use' rate plan option...
any solar system sized to provide anything close to a sizable 240v usable and CONSTANT output, and only during the DAYLIGHT hours, would have to be HUGE... add batteries, and now your even more underwater...

 

[Scorpio3d]

I have 9K watts of solar panels using net metering. Unfortunately, my utility has completely turned off allowing me to grow more panels.

I am thinking of purchasing a 48V, off grid setup to charge my Lightning. I can charge using a 120V AC plug or a 30A 220v Dryer type plug. The 120V only charges at about 1 mile/hour, so is virtually useless for my needs. I need about 100KWH per week for my around town use. This means I will need the 30A option. I would be building this system solely for charging my Lightning.

There are lots of options out there for, say, a 48V DC charge controller, battery and inverter. I'm not sure how to size it given that I can plug it in on most days when I am not driving it. I would also be storing the battery in the garage and I know that a LIFEPO4 batter needs to be conditioned to work.

Life cycle cost are also a consideration. I only pay 12.5 cents per KWH and plan to keep my lightning for at least 10 years. I will probably purchase another EV after this one. The ~25 year warranty on solar panels are a big factor in calculating life cycle costs.

My question to the forum is:: Has anyone attempted off grid solar for charging their EV? What is your experience?

Thanks.

What size is your current solar array 9K? or is that what you are net exporting to the utility? And secondly, are you net exporting? When do you usually charge? Do you have battery backup now? how are you charging now?

 

[Runaway Tractor]

If all you need is 100kw spread out across a week, this is really easy. A 6kwh system will produce about 100kwh per week at the lowest point of January. If the truck is parked at home during most of the sunny parts of the mid day, where power can charge live, you won't need a battery system.

• EG4 18k Hybrid Inverter will output 12,000 watts at 240vac, which is enough to fully supply your level 2 EV charger. $4,900
  
  
• 400w Solar Panels are about $150-$180 each and you'd need 16 to max out your winter capacity for EV charging. Reducing the quantity to "value engineer" just lowers you winter capacity and is up to your judgement. $2,400.
  
  
• Estimating $2,000 in ground mount hardware and wiring for the panels. No clue how you're planning to do that so just an estimate for discussion.

So you're at about $10,000 in materials to pump 100kwh per week into your truck. At $0.12/kwh that you pay the utility, your truck costs you $12/week or $624/yr. It would take you 16yrs to break even on materials costs.

If the truck is not home and plugged in during the peak solar hours of the day, then you'd need battery storage to hold each day's worth of solar power generation. A 15kwh battery bank like this adds about $3800 to the price tag.

At $0.12/kwh, your electricity is just way too cheap to make this worthwhile in my opinion.

 

[Grumpy2]

They claim they have a contract with a company that will install a solar farm. Part of the contract is that they will face no solar competition across the utility..

I am surprised if this can be enforced .... I don't think they can deny service because you are following best practices.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I am surprised if this can be enforced .... I don't think they can deny service because you are following best practices.

Sure they can. The power company has no obligation but an unlimited amount power from anyone and everyone that's wants to. They're not denying service. They'll serve you as much power as you want to pay for. They're capping how much solar power they're willing to buy back from him.

Smaller companies and coops have very tight defined generation contracts to get the rates they want. They would not be able to buy their contractual amount of power if every homeowner is slamming massive kwh into the grid instead.

Big regional or statewide power companies usually have plenty of room for home solar generation buyback. Some need it just to lower demand. So it's usually not a problem with them.

 

[Dino]

About two years ago I had a 7kw solar system installed with a 9kw backup battery and a 12k Solark inverter. I knew I would eventually have EV's so I had the company install one grid NEMA 14 50 outlet. Then the Solark inverter has a Smartload connection that can be configured as a generator input or a 50 amp outlet, so the company installed a solar NEMA 14 50 outlet utilizing that.
So now I have a Lightning 98kw and a plug in hybrid Volvo 17kw. I drive one and charge the other with my excess solar production during the day.
One thing I have not seen mentioned here is that the government pays via mostly tax credits for about 35% of the cost of the solar panels, battery and inverter expenses including labor and sales tax, utilizing a couple of different programs and if needed spread out up to 5 years.
Since I have a battery backup, my system is allowed to stay active during an outage (automatically disconnects from the grid) this allows me to charge vehicles during the outage if needed.

 

[LHR]

have a look at https://worksport.com/pages/solis-cor

 

[Zprime29]

Check out this thread: https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...rging-solar-array-build-w-agrivoltaics.17055/

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