As part of my “Grand Plan” I’ve been thinking about designing a mobile charging station. The idea is to have solar panels with a grid connection as well, it could also have a battery bank for standalone operation.
The problem is going to be the current draw, if running from solar alone I don’t think it will be able to deliver the full current that most EV’s will suck down when on charge. Anyone got enough electrical knowledge to know what effect this will have on the array and also the charger? I’m guessing that as the current draw exceeds the capacity of the cells and inverter that the voltage will start to drop, will this cause problems for chargers? Alternatively will it fry the inverter?
Other question is can you plug a grid connect system in to a standard power point or do you have to have a specialty wired meter and connection? Ignoring the fact for the moment that you won’t be able to measure the power being delivered back to the grid, I’m guessing that you probably can’t and even if you could the power company would probably get quite upset if you just plugged it in without telling them. It can still be done if a full grid connection is needed, the main reason I’m looking at doing this as a portable is so that it can be “put away” at night or when not in use to avoid damage from the elements or vandals.
At this stage this is just a concept design but the thought is that companies could use it to provide charging for their employees and to use some of that waisted car park space to set up a grid connect solar array. The next step is then to work on the Gov to make EV’s and EV parking bays FBT exempt which will make salary packaging EV’s attractive.