How to Solar Charge an Electric Bicycle

LockH said:
lwik said:
Folded that 300 watt panel is equal to a 4x8 sheet of plywood.

Hehe... Oooops. Couldn't see that 4x8-ish size from the pic. Foldup panel like this from Powerenz?:
http://www.powerenz.com/store/300-watt-solar-panel-charging-system/prod_312.html

Yes, Just like it. But I bought a battery and other things so high-power cycle gave it to me for the same cost, otherwise I would have bought it from the link you listed. http://www.hi-powercycles.com/hpc-suncapture-300-folding-solar-panel-and-charger/

This comes with the solar charge converter, which alone would cost $300. I'm sure they order the panels from the same company.
 
Wisco said:
I'm pursuing solar installation as a career, so I can't help but put in my two cents.

As others have touched on, the central question is why you want to go solar. If it's mostly for fun, anything goes. If you want to reduce your usage of coal-powered electricity then focusing on your home is a much more productive target than the (relatively) trivial power used by your already very efficient ebike. Even then, the most cost effective reductions in usage often aren't solar panels. But once you've gotten the low-hanging fruit, PV panels are a great way to provide the remaining electricity.

If your primary goal is reducing the global CO2 levels, then taking a broader look at lifestyle impacts becomes a bigger factor. Air travel, for example, can easily dwarfe savings from other efforts. And if you just want to use money towards this end, well managed rainforest preservation funds are among the best in terms of CO2/$.

There is a fantastic little book called "How bad are bananas?" that puts numbers to a lot of items and activities that are difficult to estimate.

And if you want a setup where the electrons running your bike were produced by panels absorbing energy directly from the sun.. There are plenty of options but they will all suffer from mediocre efficiency. The voltage and amperage of a panel is highly dependent on exposure, and without a charge controller or some kind of regulation they aren't great at pushing energy. If I were to attempt this I would probably do it with at least two ebike battery packs. One to ride, one to charge. That would provide some buffer for cloudy days without requiring storing the energy twice.

Preaching to the choir, I know, but I love talking about this stuff.

Excellent comments.

Making an ebike battery specific charge controller would not be difficult, for those who want that.
 
In local (to me) news "As solar installations multiply, U.S. utility companies fight back":
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/solar-panels-nevada-1.3765962

ACK! I that article, link to other news "Solar on the roof taxed as income" [???] So. Any tax on rainfall yet anywhere? :?

Sigh... "Vested interests" Seen elsewhere on the Great Woo-Woo-Woo "There were over 7,000 carriage and wagon makers doing business by the early 1900s.(in the USA)" Guess THEY didn't have a strong enough "lobby" against the horseless carriage business powered by... various. [sigh]
 
LockH said:

"Nice".

Now you have a 36% cell instead of a 21% cell but you can only harvest the direct irradiation because of the concentrator technology. So you loose ca. 50-60% of your solar energy at least in cloudy Germany.

To avoid self shading you need about 2-3x ground space for 2 axis tracking panels compared to fixed mounted panels.

Even if the modules would be priced similarly per Watt peak (which I highly doubt) it would cost MUCH because of the complex mounting system nd the additional space and wires needed.

A 36% effecient cell could be interesting for satellites and racing solar mobiles at a "concentration factor" of 1. Such cells are available and ultra expensive.

For the technology presented here no market exists even if all the claims would be true and even if the module would be cheap.
 
lwik said:
I sold my house last year and built my ultimate touring /bug out vehicle. Next February I set off on a year long trip across the states and into Europe.

Please tell us more about it, I'm very interested in that vehicle. Maybe starting an extra new thread would be a good idea.
 
lwik said:
I use a 300 watt fold out solar panel that I built a special pannier for for my front rack.

Are those sunpower cells on a flexible sheet?

They do brake easily when you bend them often... You will not notice it early, because the micro cracks can only be seen in IR...

My 20W modul I bought for testing... (electric parameters are still ok)

EL_Sunpower_semiflexibel_PET.jpg
 
Cephalotus said:
lwik said:
I use a 300 watt fold out solar panel that I built a special pannier for for my front rack.

Are those sunpower cells on a flexible sheet?

They do brake easily when you bend them often... You will not notice it early, because the micro cracks can only be seen in IR...

My 20W modul I bought for testing... (electric parameters are still ok)

They are the Sunpower cells indeed. They are the 24% efficient ones and are really nice. But even in ideal conditions I think the most I have seen them produce are 260 watts.
 
Cephalotus said:
lwik said:
I sold my house last year and built my ultimate touring /bug out vehicle. Next February I set off on a year long trip across the states and into Europe.

Please tell us more about it, I'm very interested in that vehicle. Maybe starting an extra new thread would be a good idea.

There is so much to tell. I did years of research to figure out what I wanted. With all the campaign gear, bike, electric motor and solar panels I have spent about $11K. Just picked up a second 51V 15AH battery and an extra wheel trailer to disperse the weight. Surly makes some tough steel frames and I got the Ogre, but to do it again I night have gotten the ECR incase I want really wide tires. My 2000W motor is in the front since I use a Rolhoff 14 speed hub and a gates carbon drive. The 2000w motor helps me get those 435 pounds up the hills and also the 52V 15AH battery provides power at camp to recharge all my USB devices and power my laptop using a small 300 watt inverter.

This Thursday 9/22 my friends are dropping me off in Portland Oregon where I will ride out to the coast, down to SF and then in to Sacramento again. Looks like 3+ weeks and 950 miles. Should be another good test for the touring / bug out vehicle!
 

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Looks very nice. How does it handle with the gear on your front wheel? What's your typical consumption on electricity? What's your range?

What stuff do you take with you? 435 pounds looks like some load.

Is this an extra wheel trailer?

Use your fexible sunpower cells with great car. They brake very easily. Another one that I tested with EL:

50W_Sunpowerzellen_semiflexibel.jpg

I have some bikes with BionX systems and 13s batteries which I'm more or less happy with. (they are legal, that's the most important thing and for "bug out" you could change the console in 2 seconds and go 40km/h+)

I plan to buy a trailer (most likely the TT Mule shown below) and add 150-200W of solar power to it. Sadly half of the year is the opposite of sunny over here...

28_2.jpg
 
ebent said:
I can think of 2 good reasons to persue this endevour.

1. This is a great science project. It can propel you to the next and next and maybe something practical can be the result.

2. If one intends or is currently in a remote area without electric. Not too many places like that but I know a few.

Maybe there is a third or forth good reason but I can't think of it.

Otherwise Dogman is spot on. Dogman rides a lot and his cost is $50. My cost then is a lot less. If this is a learning opportunity to create something financially effecient and you have the gray matter, you can help us all. If not then plug in.

A few years ago we looked into helping our daughter build a house on a piece of land we own, but the cost of running 2000 ft of power lines through the woods was cost prohibitive (25-30K if I remember correctly) If I were building that house today I would put the $$ toward making it electrically self-sufficient instead - even though the grid is only a stones throw away.
 
^^ Plus One re above. (ES missing any "Thumb Up/Down" buttons.) [grumble grumble]

Seems solar cells are fragile. Gotta be mounted carefully if transported around. So "my vote" is stationary and "feeding" an urban grid. (Plus "better" stuff uses "solar" as wind and falling water.)

So there.

:)
 
LockH said:
Seems solar cells are fragile. Gotta be mounted carefully if transported around.

It depends on the cells. The GaAs cells I worked with first were as fragile as ultra thin cookies. So we backed them with good strong and stiff carbon/Kevlar substrates and embedded them in elastomeric coatings.

At the same time, we also had flex film sailboat panels that could be stuck on the boat's deck and walked on.
 
Cephalotus said:
Looks very nice. How does it handle with the gear on your front wheel? What's your typical consumption on electricity? What's your range?

What stuff do you take with you? 435 pounds looks like some load.

Is this an extra wheel trailer?

Use your fexible sunpower cells with great car. They brake very easily. Another one that I tested with EL:



I have some bikes with BionX systems and 13s batteries which I'm more or less happy with. (they are legal, that's the most important thing and for "bug out" you could change the console in 2 seconds and go 40km/h+)

I plan to buy a trailer (most likely the TT Mule shown below) and add 150-200W of solar power to it. Sadly half of the year is the opposite of sunny over here...

28_2.jpg

Hi Cephalotus, tomorrow I head to portland to start a ride back down to Sacramento over 3 weeks. I don't have enough data yet to give any exact battery range data since it really depends on the terrain. I use it mostly to help me climb hills. This trip I will be leaving the solar panel at home. When I rode the cost last time it was cloudy almost all day. When I started the day the battery was a little less then half full. I stopped for an extended breakfast to charge. By lunch time it was about 1/2 again and I would take another long lunch to charge at a restaurant.

This trip I purchased a second battery (52v 15AH) and second 6A charger. I hope to take just 1 break per day to charge.

As for trailers I did a lot of research. I was really leaning on the Bob trailer at first but last minute did buy the Extra Wheel, which you noticed. My reasoning was I could carry close to the weight a bob trailer was permitted, but the extra wheel gave me a full size tire, tube and rim. If I had a tire that blew out on the bike I could use the one on the extra wheel since it's the same size, and store the stuff on the bike till I reached a bike shop.

The bike weighed in at 170 lbs with bike and gear. I weighed in at 265. I have not added any weight this trip but spread the weight over 3 tires. It was a bit much on the bike so I will see if the load sits better on this trip.

Also thanks for the advice on the solar panels. I will take care of them the best I can.
 
"Elon Musk to reveal Tesla-charging solar roof"
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/elon-musk-reveal-tesla-charging-solar-roof-1582910
Solar panels integrated into roof tiles will charge cars and power homes off Powerwall battery system and Tesla charger.

Integrating a Tesla charger means drivers can park in their garage, plug in and recharge overnight using electricity produced and stored during the day, in effect taking their car "off-grid" and producing no emissions at all, either in producing the energy or using it.

Until now, the Powerwall is charged with solar panels produced by SolarCity or a third party, all of which have the traditional design seen the world over and considered by many as an eyesore. Musk and Tesla plan to change this by creating a new roof design which integrates the panels more subtly.

Masters of Alt. Reality Planet of ES will of course reconfig."things" to suit their own charging...
 
More news from last year from Stanford School of Engineering. "Engineers invent transparent coating that cools solar cells to boost efficiency"
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150921153448.htm

The quandary: The hotter solar cells get, the less efficiently they convert sunlight to electricity; The fix: A new transparent overlay allows light to hit the cells while shunting heat away.

The Stanford solution is based on a thin, patterned silica material laid on top of a traditional solar cell. The material is transparent to the visible sunlight that powers solar cells, but captures and emits thermal radiation, or heat, from infrared rays.

For a typical crystalline silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 20 percent, 55 F of cooling would improve absolute cell efficiency by over 1 percent, a figure that represents a significant gain in energy production.
 
"Old" news, from way back in February this year (but zero mentions on ES so far for company "Heliatek"...)

"Heliatek claims new conversion efficiency record for organic PV cells"
heliafilm-1.jpg


http://newatlas.com/organic-photovoltaic-cell-solar-conversion-record-heliatek/41721/
In part:
German solar technology firm Heliatek claims to have outdone itself by setting a new world record for directly converting sunlight into electricity using organic photovoltaic cells. In 2012 it claimed a then world record 10.7 percent conversion efficiency and said it was gunning for 15 percent in the near future. This week it announced it's halfway there, achieving a new record of 13.2 percent.

... using a multi-junction cell...

"While traditional silicon cells have achieved higher levels of conversion efficiency, organic cells are also pursued because they can be produced more cheaply and are also more flexible."

"The firm hopes to use the new technology in its ultralight and flexible "HeliaFilm" line of cells that are produced in a roll-to-roll manufacturing process and designed to add solar power generation to buildings. And on ebikes"

(May have embellished that last bit.)
 
"You’ll never believe how cheap new solar power is"
https://thinkprogress.org/youll-never-believe-how-cheap-new-solar-power-is-7c17051c1152#.uala191hc

Includes:
0*9_VqSz2xXwWqE7qp.jpg


What that chart doesn’t reveal is that the price drop and the sales volume increase are directly linked. There is a learning curve: Over the past four decades, for every doubling in scale of the solar industry, the price of solar modules has dropped roughly 26 percent.

0*r-dBkYkLeQbWrOY9.jpg


0*NMf1Tspa2mdoQ0uI.jpg

("ANNUAL U.S. SOLAR PV INSTALLATIONS in Megawatts (2000–2015)")

0*wtZpgCzfy1t2Al9f.jpg


Seems like in about ten years ya won't be able to plug in to any circuit that is NOT solar generated. :)
 
Heliathek is (almost) in walking distance to me.

It is one thing to make a "record cell" and another thing to have a (cheap) product on the market. I would very happily buy their flexible and ultralight organic modules even at "only" 10% efficiency (organic PV increases in efficiency when hot oppoisze to all other PV technologies!)...
 
"Cheap as chips! 'Negligible' cost of integrating big solar into UK grid"
http://www.theecologist.org/News/ne...st_of_integrating_big_solar_into_uk_grid.html

The report also highlights and evaluates the portfolio effort of combining solar and wind in the energy system. The modelled scenario follows the 'High Renewables' pathway set out by the Committee on Climate Change as a generation mix consistent with the UK's 2030 carbon budgets.

This requires 40GW of solar and 45GW of wind, enough to power 55% of the UK's electricity system in 2030. The cost impact of solar on the system falls by 25% in this scenario, due to the complementary generation profiles of solar and wind. Power scenarios for the 5th Carbon Budget Report by Committee on Climate Change predicts solar and wind will beat gas on price in the UK in the 2020s.

:)
 
We had a multi billion dollar poly silicon plant under construction in my area a few years back. They got a lot of tax subsidies to build here, and the local utility ran a new feeder line right down a main city street (the plant was due to be the utilities second largest consumer of electricity). The construction superintendent was a neighbor of mine, and I took a series of aerial photos for him through out the process.

They got it finished, had a job fair, and hired most of the help, then they closed it down! Something about the world wide cost of poly silicon dropping so low, they could not make a profit, so why bother?! Google "Hoku Plant in Pocatello Idaho" and see what comes up. The huge plant sits out there, rusting away, the new power lines, that the utility put in cheap in anticipation of selling them a lot of power (yeah I know, ironic) are unused (the ute got shafted on the deal, and there was talk for a time of raising the local rates to pay for the fiasco) and it left a really bad taste for solar around here. At least for a little while, among the uninformed. Meanwhile, I see more and more residential grid tied systems as I fly around the area, and I continue to do my part to popularize the technology (see my thread about solar charging my plug in Prius in the LARGE EV section), and I sell panels/nodules on a routine basis. Just yesterday I used the Prius to deliver two 280 watt modules to a customer (FREE DELIVERY is part of my sales pitch, funny, as I bought the Prius a week after buying 2 pallets (50) of the modules, and it turns out they fit in the car like a glove so why not use it to deliver them, using mostly electricity from my solar array? Fun stuff.....
 
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