Ecotality filed for bankrupcy and intent to sell all assets

coolfilmaker said:

Nope. You just would need to have a controller set up to modify the J1772 pulse on each EVSE so that demand would match supply. With 3 days to charge all of the cars it would require less square footage of panels than the cars took up in parking space.

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Great! Why don't you build such a setup and let us know how it works! Let us know how you'll be funding the project, too! Maybe set up a Kickstarter project? That's the type of one-off project that would have saved Ecotality!

coolfilmaker said:

Nope. You just would need to have a controller set up to modify the J1772 pulse on each EVSE so that demand would match supply. With 3 days to charge all of the cars it would require less square footage of panels than the cars took up in parking space.

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These were test drive events. They had several LEAFs all running test drives non-stop. They would pull a car out to QC (quick charge) it for 20 minutes, then get it back doing test drives. There was no time to use J1772, much less let it take three days to charge the cars. :roll:

Come to the 2014 Teslive event!

Along with the great sessions, outside vendors, Tesla Factory party, and Sunday morning mountain drive, we'll be demonstrating our new EV solar charging system on site at the event....

Drive your Model S from anywhere in California, and you'll be able to re-charge in the day time with the other 150 or so Teslas at the event. Power will be shared among the cars, but we're pretty sure we can provide a few hundred watts continuously for each car...Make sure you check the optional charging box on your registration (cost: $1,000 additional per attendee), and leave knowing that the event is as Green as can be....

The hotel is also offering reduced rates for those folks who will need to stay an extra night or two while your car is charging...

Have a great conference....

Randy said:

Come to the 2014 Teslive event!

Along with the great sessions, outside vendors, Tesla Factory party, and Sunday morning mountain drive, we'll be demonstrating our new EV solar charging system on site at the event....

Drive your Model S from anywhere in California, and you'll be able to re-charge in the day time with the other 150 or so Teslas at the event. Power will be shared among the cars, but we're pretty sure we can provide a few hundred watts continuously for each car...Make sure you check the optional charging box on your registration (cost: $1,000 additional per attendee), and leave knowing that the event is as Green as can be....

The hotel is also offering reduced rates for those folks who will need to stay an extra night or two while your car is charging...

Have a great conference....

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Oh, for ****'s sake. It would be a huge promotion for Solar City. I'm sure they have thousands of spare panels that they could use.

coolfilmaker said:

Randy said:

Come to the 2014 Teslive event!

Along with the great sessions, outside vendors, Tesla Factory party, and Sunday morning mountain drive, we'll be demonstrating our new EV solar charging system on site at the event....

Drive your Model S from anywhere in California, and you'll be able to re-charge in the day time with the other 150 or so Teslas at the event. Power will be shared among the cars, but we're pretty sure we can provide a few hundred watts continuously for each car...Make sure you check the optional charging box on your registration (cost: $1,000 additional per attendee), and leave knowing that the event is as Green as can be....

The hotel is also offering reduced rates for those folks who will need to stay an extra night or two while your car is charging...

Have a great conference....

Click to expand...

Oh, for ****'s sake. It would be a huge promotion for Solar City. I'm sure they have thousands of spare panels that they could use.

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About the most efficient commercial panels now available run 21% efficiency IIRR. Assuming ISA that's 210Wp/m^2, before any losses. The generic, one size fits all parking space as recommended by the Institute of Transportation Engineers measures 18' x 8', or just under 13.4m^2, or 2.81kW per space assuming the panels remain at normal incidence throughout the day (i.e. 2-axis tracking), in ideal conditions. In the real world, you'd be lucky to average 75% of that. Then add losses. Without running all the numbers, let's guesstimate 1.8kW average available (I'm probably being generous), so the panels can supply at most just a bit above L1 and well below even 3.3kW L2. Assuming the sun shines all day, without a cloud in the sky.

Having provided portable power at concerts and the like using solar arrays, believe me, you're dependent on the batteries. For cars, QC or even L2 just isn't an option without a battery or a grid, barring huge arrays per car.

Yes, the batteries are in each car and can accept a charge at just about any rate....

The 2014 event will be larger. If the hotel happens to have a large parking lot with a lot of extra spaces it would be relatively straight forward. I imagine Tesla and Solar City would be willing to donate a few engineer-hours considering it would probably break a world record or two.

coolfilmaker said:

Yes, the batteries are in each car and can accept a charge at just about any rate....

The 2014 event will be larger. If the hotel happens to have a large parking lot with a lot of extra spaces it would be relatively straight forward. I imagine Tesla and Solar City would be willing to donate a few engineer-hours considering it would probably break a world record or two.

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At Teslive 2013, there was a several hundred KVA generator running just for L2 charging. How much solar area and batteries would that take?

300,000w would be 1500 panels and 30,000 sq/ft

In the photos, the maximum number of Blinks I could see was 8. I don't think there were any in another location. If we give them the benefit of the doubt and say 10, that's 10 x 240 volts x 30 amps = 72 kW. I highly doubt they were all being 100% utilized.

Now on to solar. Let's say we want to use 10,000 square feet.

100 x 100 feet.

Sunpower X-21 panels are about 4 x 5 feet and produce 345 watts max.

That makes a 20 x 25 panel array with 172.5 kW of power (20 x 25 x .345).

Teslive is in the peak of summer, the ideal time to do this. The sun rose on the Saturday of Teslive 2013 at 5:57 am and set at 8:30 pm.

To be on the conservative side, I'd say that means 8 full hours of sun.

172.5 x 8 hours x 2.5 days = 3450 kilowatt-hours of energy.

That's just for a small setup. I was able to find quite a few multiple-hundred-thousand square foot parking lots nearby hotels in Fremont.

Also take into account that the factory now has 4 Supercharger stalls and that most people who went to Teslive 2013 drove to the factory 1-2 times.

Who's going to be crazy enough to use expensive Sunpower panels and cart them around, leaving them to sit in storage 360 days of the year? Never mind an expensive tracking system?

Surprisingly, your back of the envelope calculations are in the right ball park - if a bit optimistic because of the expensive panels and tracking system. Not to mention batteries.

Still, for annual events like this, you're going to pay a million bucks for a system that can do what you describe if not more.

You're much better off spending that $950k on a grid-tied PV system that's always producing power and using $50k for a generator and portable charging setup.

There were a handful of Blinks providing J1772 power, and there were about 4x as many NEMA 14-50 receptacles for Teslas to use with their cordsets.

The generator was 175kW and it was maxed out. And when those cars finished charging, more cars came in to charge....It was full each and every time I looked at it...

No way that a solar setup would have worked for that event...

Again, I'm sure it would not be too hard to find a solar company in silicon valley willing to loan out some panels for a weekend.

There were too many trees for solar to have worked easily at that hotel. I just wish they would have been more discrete.

coolfilmaker said:

Again, I'm sure it would not be too hard to find a solar company in silicon valley willing to loan out some panels for a weekend.

There were too many trees for solar to have worked easily at that hotel. I just wish they would have been more discrete.

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As it happens, SunPower's new HQ is only about 2.8 miles away from the Crowne Plaza hotel in Milpitas. They have an extensive solar canopy on their property, well in excess of 500 kW, I believe. If nothing else, I'm sure that valet charging or a shuttle could be arranged for those that wish to fuel their vehicles with solar energy. I think this could be something worth mentioning to Teslive coordinators.

Clearly we've moved on and this is no linger about ecotality or blink...

cyellen said:

Clearly we've moved on and this is no linger about ecotality or blink...

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I think that it would be reasonable to expect some changes, now that CarCharging owns the network. I'm not sure if this thread is the best vehicle to track them, but that topic might come up again soon. Another area of interest might be warranty work and customer support on existing Blink stations. I remember seeing some Facebook posts from owners who had trouble getting their Blinks serviced. Considering what happened with ECOtality, I cannot help but to think that it's a shame and potentially damaging to the nascent new mobility. At the same time, it's been predicted by many, and one had to wonder if corrective action was possible at some stage of the game.

cyellen said:

Clearly we've moved on and this is no linger about ecotality or blink...

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Perhaps the folks that have changed the subject can go start a new thread? And perhaps a moderator can move all of the OT posts out of this thread?

I received this email from "Blink".

Important News About Blink

As you may have heard, Car Charging Group just acquired the Blink Network and all of the Blink related assets. If you aren't already familiar with CarCharging,
we have been in the EV charging business since 2009 and are the owner of the largest independent public EV charging station network.

CarCharging has always been committed to supporting the EV industry and we want to assure you that the Blink charging stations will continue to operate.
We will work as quickly as possible to rectify any outstanding issues in order to elevate the Blink stations and network to the highest quality standard.

If you have an urgent maintenance issue (i.e. your charger does not work), please contact the Blink Call Center at (888) 998-2546 and we will do our best to
resolve the issue as soon as possible.

We appreciate your support and we look forward to serving you! Charge on!


Michael D. Farkas
Chief Executive Officer
CarCharging



Called them up, and was told this was just a "reassuring" message, and that while they still have my service ticket for an "Overheating Nozzle" in their system, service calls are still on hold.

Just an FYI, and an effort to drag this thing back on topic :roll:

My local San diego Wallgreens told me that they no longer support charging since the bankruptcy ended their "free deal". What an amazing commitment to the environment! Oh, here is their last press release that I could find: “Walgreens has a long-standing commitment to the environment and expanding its renewable energy and efficiency initiatives,” said Menno Enters, Walgreens director of energy and sustainability. “By offering up some of the country’s best locations, our sites will help provide convenient locations for EV drivers to recharge during their visit to our stores.”

Looks like their commitment is about as strong as the cheap plastic crapola they sell.

I really don't know what makes some people think that charging should be free... It is an unsustainable model. It also leads to charging sports being cluttered with fake EVs that barely have enough EV range to make it out of the parking lot, such as PIPs, or true EVs that don't really need a charge at all...

bobsfreeleaf said:

My local San diego Wallgreens told me that they no longer support charging since the bankruptcy ended their "free deal". What an amazing commitment to the environment! Oh, here is their last press release that I could find: “Walgreens has a long-standing commitment to the environment and expanding its renewable energy and efficiency initiatives,” said Menno Enters, Walgreens director of energy and sustainability. “By offering up some of the country’s best locations, our sites will help provide convenient locations for EV drivers to recharge during their visit to our stores.”

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TomT said:

I really don't know what makes some people think that charging should be free... It is an unsustainable model. It also leads to charging sports being cluttered with fake EVs that barely have enough EV range to make it out of the parking lot, such as PIPs, or true EVs that don't really need a charge at all...

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Exactly! Last time I was at OMSI (a science museum in Portland) there was an 85KW Tesla using the only J1772 plug. It's free so why not? But that guy is not even going to notice a couple hours at 30 amps. Someone who drove up from Salem in a Leaf, for example, would have been **** out of luck.