Possible?

[Frankenblob]

I just read about "Cyboinverter" something wherein one can use 4 or eight or...solar panels and generate some energy to recharge ones EV. The IQ8, by enphase, was supposed to be released by now and do the same functions but....

It wont be long whereby a company will develop similar stuff that will be able to "step-up" solar panels and/or algorithmically capitalize on the "correct flow" of energy with minimal waste and fast charging speeds (GBatteries is working on something that does the charging aspect)

I still like the idea of permanet magnetic axial flux type wheels (similar to windmills) wherein ones Cybertruck can allow "pass through charging" while driving. One on each wheel and voila put in some charge to increase range, who knows it could add 10-20-30+%, something i would pay extra for.

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[Crissa]

Well, the panels would have to produce the proper voltage of the battery pack and a special Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller designed for that high voltage. And then you could get about 20W per square foot of thin-skin panels.

That's what's cool about the Aptera, it's using individual high-efficiency cells glued to its body panels to power it (and it uses less than a third of the power per mile as a Cybertruck)

When sitting still, you technically could charge the battery through the DC fast charging port. It's be more like DC trickle charging, but... This has been demonstrated with Leafs (they specifically allow vehicle-to-building connections) and several other CCS capable vehicles. Alas, Tesla has that locked down so far, but there's no reason it could not be enabled.

-Crissa

 

[Frankenblob]

Well, the panels would have to produce the proper voltage of the battery pack and a special Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller designed for that high voltage. And then you could get about 20W per square foot of thin-skin panels.

That's what's cool about the Aptera, it's using individual high-efficiency cells glued to its body panels to power it (and it uses less than a third of the power per mile as a Cybertruck)

-Crissa

I thought, minimally, one needed 120v at 5 amps? Tho gruesomely painful in terms of "time to charge" at least Cyboinverter can give one 120v at 8 amps or 240v at 8 amps or ...possible more if configured so and all at AC 60Hz.

 

[Crissa]

I thought, minimally, one needed 120v at 5 amps?

For AC charging, you need 120v, 1a, and 60hz and the granny cable turned down to trickle. The amount of amps varies by the cable and software version, if I recall.

The AC charger just converts the voltage you're providing to the battery's voltage and then turning it to DC. AC power is good for arbitrary voltages. It's actually really inefficient to change the voltage of DC.

But the question was, 'what is possible' with a special solar device!

-Crissa

 

[T3slaDad]

If I'm understanding part of your question right, you are looking for a way to have windmills on the wheels so they spin and generate a little energy while you drive?

The problem with that (great outside of the box thinking though!) is that as energy is gained from spinning the windmills, it causes pressure, friction, and drag. Those all account for more energy needed to push the truck along, and there will always be losses making it less efficient than it started.

EVs are already very efficient in energy concervation, regen, etc. Gas cars, not so much.

For example: in a gas car, one could install something that converts excess wasted energy from the alternator into electrical energy and power something or put it back into the car. Like converting that energy directly into hydrogen on demand (HHO gas) and pumping it back into the engine for a more efficient burn (better mpg overall). This is obtainable because the alternator is always spinning when the engine is running and generates an amount of current that is wasted because it's not being used. Like an alternator producing a minimum of 100W all the time, bit only using 40W for electronics and whatnot (60W leftover).

To capture that extra wasted alternator energy in a gas car, there's a fine balance before you actually add to the load and make the alternator work harder than it naturally is, therefore using more gas to keep up with the energy demand. The average alternator kicks out about 12V 5A extra wasted energy (~60W) at any point in time. So a generator asking for more than 60W would actually make the gas car less efficient. This is why it's not very practical in many cases and therefore not popular on cars today.

I hope that helps a little!

 

[Crissa]

I think they weren't windmills, but induction in-road charging.

That seems wildly expensive to build, tho.

-Crissa

 

[Sirfun]

I think they weren't windmills, but induction in-road charging.

That seems wildly expensive to build, tho.

-Crissa

How about in a boring tunnel? You'd only need it for the uphills, on the downhills regen would work.

 

[FutureBoy]

I think they weren't windmills, but induction in-road charging.

That seems wildly expensive to build, tho.

-Crissa

In road methods of energy capture have been proposed in a few different ways. They are all crazy expensive to implement though they tend to be justified by the energy costs they could recover. But with energy costs dropping over time, they are all getting less and less feasible. Plus the current cutting edge is electric vehicles but what’s coming next? Elon says tunnels and hyperloop. Plus he has a design for electric airplanes. Those all move away from current roads and at a minimum reduce traffic so there will be less motivation to maintain current roads.

Out of all the in road proposals I’ve seen, the only ones I’ve seen as potentially viable involved collecting solar energy through the road surface. This could theoretically be beneficial long term if the solar collection method was sturdy enough to deal with traffic, easily maintained (fixing broken parts and replacing at end of life), and at least as safe to drive on as current road surfaces. But this solution would not work nearly as well in cities where roadways would be in shadow for a large portion of the day.

 

[Crissa]

Yeah, I miss the solar road guys. They picked up alot of negative fans.

But there's a couple towns implementing this - albeit in bus lanes where there shouldn't be random studded tire traffic.

-Crissa

 

[Sirfun]

I always thought it would be interesting to come up with a freeway center divide that had something like a Savonius wind turbine built into it. The wind from vehicles traveling both directions would spin it to produce energy. The one problem I see is them being damaged over time by vehicle accidents.

 

[rr6013]

I want a little red can to re-charge an EV but fuel cells aren’t going to develop fast enough. Capacitors neither. So range remains the corner case and edge condition that keeps battery EV use-constrained.