New Member Hello and Chademo / Solar panel charging question

Hi, I'm Michael,

I'm self-taught when it comes to car and hope to expand my knowledge base by participating in this message board. I've rebuilt engines, transmissions (manual and automatic) and suspensions. This is my first "crack" at electric cars, but i'm sure i'll figure that out too. lol

My idea is:

Can we use the Chademo rapid charging port to directly connect DC solar panels and slowly charge the LEAF for free? I know it's not super fast, but it's direct DC and minimal loss of power. just a thought.

eMotorWerks is developing "QC" chargers that have DC feed capabilities. They also sell their own CHAdeMO protocol plugs. I believe they are interested in adding some type of MPPT (or simulated) capabilities, but have not seen any updates on this "missing link". It would not necessarily be "slow" - just depends on how many PV panels you want to install!

Let us know of any progress!

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=13349&start=680

Check out the CHAdeMO in Yucca Valley, calif in plugshare. Charging only when the sun shines.

This type of question has been asked a bunch of times.

Google for stuff like site:mynissanleaf.com chademo solar feeding.

What about connecting solar panels to a 120v inverter and plugging in the 120v EVSE??

MikeKanterakis said:

Can we use the Chademo rapid charging port to directly connect DC solar panels and slowly charge the LEAF for free? I know it's not super fast, but it's direct DC and minimal loss of power. just a thought.

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Yes, lots of "discussions" on this topic and some commercial efforts. However, the "missing link" is a conventional MPPT based high voltage charge controller. My PV set up has the capabilities to supply the required DC voltage (likely 450 VDC plus), but no CC is yet available - that I know of (anyone know?).

Does Tesla really have such a set up with their Powerwall 2? Or does it require grid power to recharge after the batteries are depleted? If so, their claim of "emergency" back up via solar power is somewhat misleading.

I have a 7.8 KW solar array on my house (36 panels).. It may be technically able to DC a car directly from the array, but that REALLY complicates (electronics aside) the timing of charging my car. BTW, my yearly daily average at my location is about 29KW/day.

When I worked, I often got home late when solar power was low, thus wouldn't have been able to charge the Leaf fully overnight.
I like to think of the electric grid as my personal battery storage. My solar array charges during the day, stores the excess (above household use) on the "Grid", and withdraw it overnight with my L2 charger. Not a true technical description, but simple enough for me to understand and explain to others.

eastocean said:

I like to think of the electric grid as my personal battery storage. My solar array charges during the day, stores the excess (above household use) on the "Grid", and withdraw it overnight with my L2 charger. Not a true technical description, but simple enough for me to understand and explain to others.

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It seems "energy shifting" to make use of (almost free, from a production view anyway) grid energy late night/early morning is the focus of most V2G and V2H initiatives with renewable sources - and make great sense. Just doesn't do much for "off-grid" use of the relatively large energy storage capacities of EVs - for extended grid outages.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will look more into the suggested leads regarding what's already out there.

My original thought was to have an electric vehicle, like the leaf that could haul around two or three panels in the back, and set those up to charge when parked or out of battery.

With a setup like that, i could charge up my 18V power tools and go live off the grid and build my own home. zombie apocalypse style!

i do see that with a big enough solar array i could mimic the high voltage / fast charge, but that's not portable.

powersurge said:

What about connecting solar panels to a 120v inverter and plugging in the 120v EVSE??

Click to expand...

that would be cheaper from a design perspective. but, only because I don't know how to program Chademo

MikeKanterakis said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will look more into the suggested leads regarding what's already out there.

My original thought was to have an electric vehicle, like the leaf that could haul around two or three panels in the back, and set those up to charge when parked or out of battery.

With a setup like that, i could charge up my 18V power tools and go live off the grid and build my own home. zombie apocalypse style!

i do see that with a big enough solar array i could mimic the high voltage / fast charge, but that's not portable.

Click to expand...

Two or three panels isn't going to generate a whole lot of power. We're talking weeks to charge up for a single drive. Each panel is probably only about 100w, so we're talking 200-300w, and that wouldn't be constant all day. You'd maybe get the full rating right in the middle of the day and then much less the rest of the day.

I have a 7200w system and it maxes out at about 30 kwh for the day. So three panels might generate 1.5 kwh per day if we're generous. Or about 20 days to fully charge the 30 kwh battery, not taking into account charging loses. Maybe about 5 miles of range per day max. Oh and that's in the summer. In the winter it will be a lot less. Some days close to zero charge.

So it's not viable in the first place and that's without even going into how you're going to set them up wherever you drive to. You'd be better off walking or riding a bike.

If you want to charge via solar, get a fixed array of at least 20-30 panels .

I must be older than you. I don't mind waiting 20 days.

Because those 20 days will come regardless.

I'm not expecting a setup like I'm positing to fill up my car during my lunch break. I'm talking about living off the grid. Maybe I need to go to the market once a month for supplies. If the market is within in the range of the car round trip. I'm good.

Just looking for some chademo programming that would allow a slow charge.