I visited the intersolar 2011 exhibition which is one of the world's largest trading fairs dealing with all aspects of solar power use.
Here are some impressions I got in connection with electromobiles.
There were some electric cars (mostly Tesla Roadsters and Mitshubishi iMiEVs, but also a dutch registered chinese BYD e6) to demonstrate the use of a public charging stations in connection with sun generated electricity.
smart ed and Tazzari Zero as demonstration cars |
Also solar car ports for private and public parking space were extensively demonstrated.
Peugeot ion and Mitsubishi iMiEV side by side |
One of the countless Tesla Roadster supported by an iMiEV demonstrating electric charging |
For the direct use of solar power in a car I found the solar roof from asola that was developed for the Fisker Karma as an exhibit. With a power of 120W it needs 25 hours of sunshine to replace an 1 hour charge at a domestic 230V/13A wall socket.
Solar roof of the Fisker Karma |
Smaller versions that can be used as part of an electric sunroof to make it a real "electric sun"-roof have a max. power output of 40W.
Although I like the idea very much, the weight of the -I guess- 4mm glass roof with the solar cells will be much higher than a conventional roof of a 0,7mm steel or 1,2mm aluminium sheet. This weight increase may consume a lot of the additional energy generated. But for electric cars a solar roof is more an issue of design and political statement.
And for conventional cars using a photovoltaic sunroof with climate control it is a real gain in comfort at sunny days because the tiny 12V batteries are not capable to run the venting fan all the day.
Another interesting aspect was the storage of excessive solar generated electricity in private homes to use it later when the sun is not shining, during peak power demand or even at night. Especially at the present situation in Germany the private solar electricity producer gets more money per produced kWh by using the electricity on his own instead of feeding it to the grid. With a local energy storage at his home he can increase the use of own generated electricity.
So there were several manufacturers of photovoltaik systems that integrate a battery pack (with capacities from 5-13,2 kWh) in their systems for local energy storage (solarworld, conergy, E3/DC).
The system from conergy for example with a 8,8 kWh or 13,2 kWh battery uses the same (or very similar) Li-ion cells as the Daimler S-class hybrid. So the boost of the development that batteries get from the automotive industry already reach the private homes.
Local energy storage system with Li-ion batteries |
The next step to fully integrate an electric car with an additional 20kWh+ energy storage to your home's energy management seems not to be far away. Imagine also a plug in-hybrid- or range-extender-vehicle to act as an emergency power supply just in case of need.
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