Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Charger Unveiled

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An intriguing solar-powered electric vehicle charger has been created and recently unveiled by Princeton Satellite Systems in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Called a SunStation, it employs solar panels to recharge electric vehicles, even two at the same time. The company says their EV charger can charge a Prius hybrid plug-in in 1.5 hours, a Chevy Volt in 5 hours, and a Nissan Leaf in eight.

The advantage of their SunStations is that they can be installed just about anywhere, as long as there is enough sunlight. (Most EV chargers need to be located near a conventional power supply.)

SunStation

SunStations can be used for power needs other than electric vehicles, such as homes or small businesses after an electrical outage from a storm. There may also be interest for use in other countries where there is no grid, and no or little electricity. A SunStation might actually be able to provide electricity to an entire village in some remote areas.

There are two sizes available, one with four solar panels and a 1.6 kilowatt battery for $27,000 and a larger one priced at $55,000.
 


 
The President of Princeton Satellite Systems said some companies, like Starbucks, have expressed interest. Organizations with large staff may consider them also as a perk for their employees, such as high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. At the search engine called Infoseek years ago, there was at least one EV charger in the company parking lot where the CEO would charge his EV-1.

In August of this year, Santa Clara County (in the Silicon Valley area) announced it has twelve EV charging stations available to the public at the County of Santa Clara Civic Center.

Princeton Satellite Systems, Inc. also develops software for the aerospace industry, iPhone apps, and will be releasing CubeSat hardware as well.

Image Credit: Princeton Satellite Systems

Jake Richardson (150 Posts)

Hello, I have been writing online for some time, and enjoy the outdoors.


  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Stan-Stein/1756064509 Stan Stein

    There are 10 panels on the one in the picture. 99% of the panels on the market are 240 watt…..if they are typical, then the array would be rated at 2.4 KW, or 2400 watts…….period, end of story.This amount of power is what it takes to run 2 microwave ovens and 10x 40 watt light bulbs.
    At the rate of even current sales (pun intended) pf EVs, we will be having some brown outs very soon…..a few million vehicles charging at once (most people charge at similar times of the day, because they drive at similar times, like rush hour, etc.
    So, it’s either build more power plants, or make lots and lots of solar and other green power outlets…..adding an EV to the mix, is like adding approx. 1 more home’s draw to the grid’s power….so a family with an EV, is like 2 family’s regular daily power consumption.
    Once again, here are our disgustingly incompetant politicians, setting us up for complete disaster…..and a reason to apply the now ubiquitis term CRISIS…….what is Romney thinking, when he wants to cut wind subsidies?
    BTW, my company builds utility grade solar in NJ, PA, DE and MD….we know these points to be accurate.

    • Bob_Wallace

      ”
      99% of the panels on the market are 240 watt”

      Well, that’s a crock, Stan, and things go downhill from there.

      Most people will likely charge at night when their cars are parked for long periods of time and electricity is cheapest.

      NREL has shown that the grid has adequate generation and transmission to charge 78% of all American cars if they were to magically turn into EVs over night.

      The average EV will drive about 1,000 miles per month. 310 kWh per month. In 2009 the average US house used 908 kWh of electricity per month. Adding an EV is like adding 1/3 of a home, not 100% of a home.

    • RobS

      The average US daily driving distance is about 39 miles, that requires about 14 kwh for an EV, the average US home consumes 31kwh daily so youve overestimated by about 2 times. With regards to grid stability, it’s true millions of EVs charged simultaneously would stress the grid, however the average daily recharge will take 1-2 hours, the average vehicle is parked 23 hours per day, this means EVs can be charged when the power is available, many utilities are encouraging late night charging through time of use metering and most of the currently available EVs have computer controlled charging meaning the car can be parked and set to commence charging at at some point overnight. There is serious potential for utility controlled charging triggers where the utility sends a signal to start or stop charging based on the availability of excess power, such demand side management is very valuable to utilities for load levelling purposes and becomes even more so as intermittent renewable penetration increases.

      • http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan

        this is something i heard a CEO of a main FL utility talk about in a very excited way — demand-side management and storage via EV batteries.

    • Yosef

      Stan- I am one of the engineers who worked on this project. Our panels are 400 W. Since the Leaf has 24 kWh capacity it would take 8 panels 7.5 hours to charge directly (we have a battery storage capacity of 24kWh as well, so if there isn’t that much sun on a given day…). What company do you work for, btw?

      • naoru

        if you have a total of 4k of panels and given that you get the panels for about 1$ per watt how come the system cost is 50,000?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Miller/100000952005408 Bruce Miller

      Storage! Li or NiMh or nano carbon super capacitor or better, accumulation and storage up to the point of demand? 21 century science and technology proves this easy – even for Wind turbines now. Even the older lead acid and Iron batteries will work – remember: the filling station is stationary so weight and bulk are no longer a problem. Even water pumped uphill works for storage in Germany. Also: see Israel’s electric 1000 km car and Chreos 1000 km car for storage proven.

  • Thumbs

    It would make more sense as a carport/canopy protecting the car from the elements while charging. I had the idea of a fold-up version of this that fits in the back of the vehicle and can be assembled by the owner.

    • Eric

      It would either be too heavy, or too small to make its functionality worthwhile

  • http://www.facebook.com/matthew.t.peffly Matthew Todd Peffly

    If I’m a company looking to provide EV support. I think I would be better to run the wires thru the parking lot than to pay for batteries. Then mount PV panels on my roof and/or over my parking lot (see Cincinnati Zoo). Use the grid as a battery. Yes soooooon storage will be cheap enough to have on site, but then you will want it for the site (microgrid). Not disconnected into isolated island, where one is over charged and grounding out its power and another doesn’t have enough to do its job.

  • Bob_Wallace

    Jake – I think you should have researched this more before posting.

    Take a look at the size of that array. I’m guessing about 1 kW. With five hours of sunshine it would produce about 5kWh, enough for about 16 miles of driving at 0.31kWh/mile.

    That’s going to charge 2 EVs? Eight miles each?

    16 miles charging for a Prius in 1.5 hours would require over 3 kW of panels.

    And battery storage? Not unless you’re designing a system to be located far from the grid. Otherwise feed the extra power to the grid and avoid the battery charge loss.

    • Bob_Wallace

      I emailed the company. Here’s the reply to my question of how large an array they use….

      “Thank you for your inquiry. We have two models. One produces 1600 W peak, the other 3200 W peak. The smaller unit stores 12 kWh and the larger 24 kWh.”

      The pictured array could be 1600W. Perhaps they are using higher efficiency panels.

      OK, 1600W and a generous five hours of solar.

      8kW. 25.8 miles with a 0.31kWh/mile EV. Direct charging (actually a little less due to battery inefficiency. Not quite the average daily drive amount.

      12kWh storage – assume you install one of these at your remote nighttime parking space. You could store about 38 miles of driving. But you couldn’t totally recharge the battery in a single day.

      I’d say “Not ready for prime time”.

      • RobS

        Bob, I see little to no reason to think a 10 panel mount would represent a 1kw system, can you show me any modern commercial solar system utilising 100watt panels? I see no reason they wouldn’t be using 250-300 watt panels meaning this would represent a 2.5-3kw array. As for your confusion about the inclusion of batteries, if we want to show that intermittent renewables have the potential to then grid storage will have to play a big role, so even though grid feed may be slightly less lossy I see great value in the development of some proof of concept systems. Secondly one of the major criticisms of EVs rightly or wrongly is the extra load they place on the power grid, including batteries means this is a system that can replenish the average daily driving needs of a vehicle with NO additional load on thew grid allowing poeple to charge at any time of day without any grid impacts, that is a convenience that has real value. In the end what we have here are solar EV chargers capable of charging the daily driving needs of light and moderate drivers with no additional grid load, zero emissions and basically zero ongoing costs. I’m not sure if it’s ready for commercial prime time but as a proof of concept I think it has tremendous value.

        • Bob_Wallace

          I just eyeballed the physical size of the system and then looked out the window at my 1.2kW system and made a back of eyeball comparison. Emails from the company states a larger output than my estimate. Higher efficiency panels is my guess.

          My problem with this system is that they present it in a way that suggests one can charge two cars and put power in batteries to charge more. There’s a lot implied in the way the advertising blurb is presented.

          What makes most sense to me is to tie these panels to the grid. That way any power they produce when no car is parked can be used for other purposes. EVs can charge faster with a big pipe from the grid. And the “batteries” will never be flat.

          EVs should be extremely valuable for grid managers. The average EV will need only about 1.5 hours of charging per day. That makes them a highly dispatchable load (if they get plugged in while parked). A great place to stick supply spikes – and a great load to dump when supply flags.

          We’re seeing solar start to eat into grid peaks in Germany and possibly Southern California. If a lot of people want to charge during the day, that will create more demand for rooftop/parking lot solar. Most likely additional solar will come on line faster than will EVs/PHEVs,

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Miller/100000952005408 Bruce Miller

        Depends: Augmented by Grid? Local Wind Turbines? Larger arrays for high mileage folks? price of gasoline?

  • dawn

    why don’t they incorporate solar panels into the roof of the car. Also what about mini wind turbines either incorporated with the solar panel (ie in a small space between the panel and the roof) or in a tube underneath the car. I would like to see more EV that are self-charging. Obviously this may not be enough to fully charge, but it could keep the battery from losing as much power while you drive.

    • Bob_Wallace

      There’s not that much real estate on the roof of a car. And they don’t always get parked out in the Sun.

      Better to put the panels where they will get sunshine whenever the Sun is out.

      (Some cars are using rooftop panels to run fans to keep the interior cooler when the sun is parked in the sunshine.)

      If the turbines you ask about are on the car then it would take energy from the car’s batteries to move the car forward in order to make the turbines spin. The friction in the system would make this an energy looser.

  • Debra

    I like the idea for charging EVs. It seems there would have to be alternative charging available for those not-so clear days. Or maybe it is just used for opportunity charging? Could also be a great source for those 70% 2nd use EV batteries.

    • http://jpwhitehome.wordpress.com JP White

      The manufacturers website is much better at explaining the technology. Batteries allow for charging when sun isn’t enough or available. Quote: “With its built-in battery it can charge EVs 24 hours a day.”

      Source: http://www.psatellite.com/SunStation/