Connecting SOLIS Solar Tonneau Cover to Main Battery

[SpaceEVDriver]

This is the kind of use case I was thinking. Just a slight reserve to get you to a charging station if you happen to run out of juice or something. Solar tonneau cover can keep the reserve topped up and you can tap into it when you need it.

My perspective is that solar, in its current state, isn't enough to deliver the amount of juice to keep the main pack from draining or charging fast enough when parked. Refer to the movie, the Martian, even the main character there needed to spend nearly the full Martian day to charge his rover to go any significant distance. Why would we expect anything more than that right now?

There's a significant difference between Mars and Earth: Mars receives about 0.59 kW/m^2 and Earth receives about 1.1 kW/m^2. The book and movie just made up a travel rate to move at the speed of plot. (Part of my career was research related to solar insolation on Mars.)

For camping trips and overlanding, a 650-1200 watt solar system is capable of providing enough power to recharge some portion of an EV battery if there's a large enough auxiliary battery. Depending on where one is camping.

The question of value is personal.

It's not always about saving money and may be more about the journey.

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[Scorpio3d]

I carry a 5 kWh auxiliary battery / power station that I charge with solar. I plug in my L1 EVSE midday after the auxiliary battery is fully charged by the sun. I discharge down to about 20% (4 kWh added to the truck). It gives me an extra several tens of miles when camping. People who dismiss this are only thinking with a single perspective.

What did your system cost and how often do you use it?
I think that is the question that must be answered for somebody that camps once a year or less, why would you spend that kind of money for that small amount (1-3 miles)of range?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

What did your system cost and how often do you use it?
I think that is the question that must be answered for somebody that camps once a year or less, why would you spend that kind of money for that small amount (1-3 miles)of range?

I already had the auxiliary battery for camping before we bought the lightning. I already had the solar for charging the auxiliary battery while camping. The total cost was about $2k for the auxiliary battery and solar.

It's closer to 12 miles per day recharge (I don't drive very fast on boondocking fire/forest/camp roads). For 3 days of camping, that's around 30-40 miles. That kind of range is enabling for some of our more out-there camping trips.

 

[tearitupsports]

I already had the auxiliary battery for camping before we bought the lightning. I already had the solar for charging the auxiliary battery while camping. The total cost was about $2k for the auxiliary battery and solar.

It's closer to 12 miles per day recharge (I don't drive very fast on boondocking fire/forest/camp roads). For 3 days of camping, that's around 30-40 miles. That kind of range is enabling for some of our more out-there camping trips.

I think you would agree that yours is a more reasonable and cost effective solution than a bed cover panel. I assume that you put your solar panels on the ground in a more ideal layout when camping to charge the portable battery system.

 

[Athrun88]

There's a significant difference between Mars and Earth: Mars receives about 0.59 kW/m^2 and Earth receives about 1.1 kW/m^2. The book and movie just made up a travel rate to move at the speed of plot. (Part of my career was research related to solar insolation on Mars.)

For camping trips and overlanding, a 650-1200 watt solar system is capable of providing enough power to recharge some portion of an EV battery if there's a large enough auxiliary battery. Depending on where one is camping.

The question of value is personal.

It's not always about saving money and may be more about the journey.

It was simply to illustrate that relying on solar to keep your main pack charged or to extend the range any meaningful way under any reasonable time was not really possible, in SciFi or real life.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I think you would agree that yours is a more reasonable and cost effective solution than a bed cover panel. I assume that you put your solar panels on the ground in a more ideal layout when camping to charge the portable battery system.

Sure. But if someone who doesn't have the strength or inclination to move around panels wants a solution, this offers something.

I wouldn't buy it, but I also don't judge people who spend their money on it. Just like I don't judge people who spend their money on upgrading their stereo or slamming their truck or adding lights to the wheels or whatever other things people spend their money on for their own reasons. None of those things have a positive value to me but they do to the people who spend the money on it.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

It was simply to illustrate that relying on solar to keep your main pack charged or to extend the range any meaningful way under any reasonable time was not really possible, in SciFi or real life.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "reasonable." If I'm camping and the truck is just sitting, any added charge is "reasonable" to me.

 

[tearitupsports]

Sure. But if someone who doesn't have the strength or inclination to move around panels wants a solution, this offers something.

I wouldn't buy it, but I also don't judge people who spend their money on it. Just like I don't judge people who spend their money on upgrading their stereo or slamming their truck or adding lights to the wheels or whatever other things people spend their money on for their own reasons. None of those things have a positive value to me but they do to the people who spend the money on it.

I think both statements are fair, but on the flip side, a lot of people are not judging, but rather tempering what is likely to be un-realistic expectations. Further than that, depending on how accurately it is advertised, it could be treading into scam territory.
You have a lot of history with the products and have a quite realistic expectation. There are a lot of people (based on the number of times this topic has come up) that think this is going to turn their truck into an Aptera.

This statement below from their website is scam territory. This can only happen in the truck being located in the full sun all 365 days of the year during all daylight hours. Real world use cases will be extremely lucky if they can achieve 1/3 of this, and most people will be about 1/8 of this I am guessing.

SOLIS
A single truck can gain 2050 miles per year in added range - That’s the equivalent of 5.4 trips between L.A. and San Francisco.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I think both statements are fair, but on the flip side, a lot of people are not judging, but rather tempering what is likely to be un-realistic expectations. Further than that, depending on how accurately it is advertised, it could be treading into scam territory.
You have a lot of history with the products and have a quite realistic expectation. There are a lot of people (based on the number of times this topic has come up) that think this is going to turn their truck into an Aptera.

This statement below from their website is scam territory. This can only happen in the truck being located in the full sun all 365 days of the year during all daylight hours. Real world use cases will be extremely lucky if they can achieve 1/3 of this, and most people will be about 1/8 of this I am guessing.

SOLIS
A single truck can gain 2050 miles per year in added range - That’s the equivalent of 5.4 trips between L.A. and San Francisco.

2050 miles / 2 miles/kWh = 1025 kWh.
1025 kWh / 0.65 kW = 1577 hours
1577 hours / 365 days = 4 hours.

So a truck with the 650 watt panels would need about 4 hours of daily sunlight on average to get that benefit.

Most of the country gets more than 4 hours of direct sun daily average. Some days more, some days less. Only the Pacific Northwest has fewer than 4 hours of peak sunlight on average (they get about 3.5 hours/day average).

It’s not a scam, but I also agree that it’s also not exactly the solution people might expect. If people really want to solar power their truck, they would be better off with installing solar on their home. But not everyone has a home onto which they can install solar, so this might be an option for some people. It’s imperfect, but it can be a slight improvement.

The more scammy part of their site, to me, is the assertion that it’s the auto manufacturers fault that they can’t do direct charging. That’s a voltage issue, not a policy issue. They would need to step up from 48 volts to 400+ volts to be able to provide a charge and that’s not realistic.

 

[tearitupsports]

2050 miles / 2 miles/kWh = 1025 kWh.
1025 kWh / 0.65 kW = 1577 hours
1577 hours / 365 days = 4 hours.

So a truck with the 650 watt panels would need about 4 hours of daily sunlight on average to get that benefit.

Unfortunately the real world does not come out to that. Luckily you can go to pvwatts (pvwatts.nrel.gov). It will tell you the monthly and yearly kWh produced based on system size and orientation. A system with 0 degree tilt will produce about 876 kWh yearly on a fixed system here in Houston. While there are better locations than here, it is a pretty decent representation. Again a fixed system with zero shade would barely make their number (and I am assuming 2.3 miles / kWh which is my 50k miles lifetime average). I have a fixed tilt solar system on my house, and can tell you the NREL numbers are quite accurate.

 

[bmwhitetx]

This is the kind of use case I was thinking. Just a slight reserve to get you to a charging station if you happen to run out of juice or something. Solar tonneau cover can keep the reserve topped up and you can tap into it when you need it.

I think an issue with the jerry-can/reserve concept is when you run out of juice, you can't immediately dump the 5-10 kWh into the EV battery and be on your way (unlike a 5 gallon gas can). You would also need an inverter, then charging at 120V would take several hours to get that 5-10 kWh (extra 10-20 miles range) into the truck.

In the meantime you're always carrying around a 100-200 pound battery. I don't dispute that the tonneau could keep it topped up for occasional use but what you're topping off is expensive, heavy, and not practical as an immediate-use reserve.

Just my two cents.

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