Silly idea?

[KillaWhat]

That's a big shadow:)

Not A shadow; Reflection of the trees behind
About 26 KwH on a good day.

[JohnBike]

We are so far behind some countries. We spent two weeks in Italy in 2013 (avatar is from Florence). Drove over 850 miles. About half the driving was on the Autostrada, where all of the rest stops had numerous shaded parking spots. No waste of roof space there - the shades are solar panels. Not all of the spaces had charging ports, but most of the Autostrada rest stops we encountered were listed as self-sustaining.

One of my first projects at our new home (moving in July) will be to convince the community to let us put panels over the garage.

[Sondy132001]

FYI - http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/08/sol ... rb-appeal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We are so far behind some countries. We spent two weeks in Italy in 2013 (avatar is from Florence). Drove over 850 miles. About half the driving was on the Autostrada, where all of the rest stops had numerous shaded parking spots. No waste of roof space there - the shades are solar panels. Not all of the spaces had charging ports, but most of the Autostrada rest stops we encountered were listed as self-sustaining.

One of my first projects at our new home (moving in July) will be to convince the community to let us put panels over the garage.

[JimSouCal]

Very nice...

This is what I built.
If you just eliminated the shed.... you would have a carport.

4000 watts, I charge at 3.3 when I use it.
Works great, plus grid tied.

Did it all myself.
Pretty easy.

[Mauileaves]

I was thinking super low end basic 4x4 posts and 2x6 rafters- Costco or other panels, and no grid tie in. Total low ball shade/charge combo- Stand alone. My workplace has no grid to tie into. Don't want batteries at this point.
Questions:
1. If no car, where does power go? Can you just turn it off?
2. Right now the car accepts the plug in (what is output of 110 plug in unit?) and 440 volt. I would like to avoid inverters- possible?

Think stupid simple- or is this impossible?

[Mauileaves]

Very nice...

This is what I built.
If you just eliminated the shed.... you would have a carport.

4000 watts, I charge at 3.3 when I use it.
Works great, plus grid tied.

Did it all myself.
Pretty easy.

Sweet! More than I had in mind, but for sure that would be awesome!

[DaveEV]

Think stupid simple- or is this impossible?

No, stupid simple is not possible.

I'm not aware of any commercial product that does what you envision.

Even if you were able to use DC straight from the panels to the car, you'd still need a sophisticated CHAdeMO charger that knows exactly how much solar power is available. And that charger would need a DC-DC inverter to boost/buck the solar panel voltage to the appropriate voltage for charging the car.

If you want stupid simple - grid-tied is about as simple as it gets.

A standalone system has to be much more complex and I just don't see it working well without at least a couple batteries.

[Slow1]

Think stupid simple- or is this impossible?

No, stupid simple is not possible.

I'm not aware of any commercial product that does what you envision.

Even if you were able to use DC straight from the panels to the car, you'd still need a sophisticated CHAdeMO charger that knows exactly how much solar power is available. And that charger would need a DC-DC inverter to boost/buck the solar panel voltage to the appropriate voltage for charging the car.

If you want stupid simple - grid-tied is about as simple as it gets.

A standalone system has to be much more complex and I just don't see it working well without at least a couple batteries.

Agreed. Also consider if you do a direct to vehicle without grid or battery then your payback on the panels is likely to be even longer; effectively increasing the cost/kWh actually delivered to the car. I don't know your parking habits, but do you think the car will be in that carport more than 1/2 the sunny time even? Rest of the time is wasted potential....

[Mauileaves]

Ok, clear, as I had suspected it would be too easy and would have been done already!
So off grid could work with battery pack, and would make a lot more sense too.