CHARGING THE LEAF BATTERY PACK WITH THE SOLAR PANEL

I don't think this question was raised yet on this forum. If so, I'm sorry to re-post.

I really don't understand why the Leaf's rear solar panel can't charge the main battery, and only the accessories.

GREENEV said:

I don't think this question was raised yet on this forum. If so, I'm sorry to re-post.

I really don't understand why the Leaf's rear solar panel can't charge the main battery, and only the accessories.

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Search these forums and you'll find lots of duscussion about the LEAF solar panel. In brief, it produces around 10 watts but it takes 1,000 to 3,300 watts to put significant charge into the traction battery that moves the LEAF. The solar prodices a tiny bit or power / energy that is good for maintaining the 12V Aux battery but is too little to make any difference to the relatively larger amounts of energy it takes to move a vehicle down the road.

GREENEV said:

I really don't understand why the Leaf's rear solar panel can't charge the main battery, and only the accessories.

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It's way too small. On other threads, I recall reading that it only produces somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-9 watts. It's good for show and maybe for keeping the 12 V accessory battery topped off (desirable for longevity with standard 12 V lead acid batteries), but is of no practical value in charging the main battery pack.

And, the panel would have to output >400 volts.

Go to the search page and note the box that says "Google Custom Search". Type leaf solar panel there and you will see lots of discussions. Here is the first: use of solar panel at spoiler on roof?

Ray

Thank you very much for the information. It really helps.

I keep mine in the garage. No solar output at all. I wonder if any solar PV owners who also have Leaves have thought about if it would be possible to take the DC output of their solar array and connect directly into the QC port during the day. Of course the proper control signals would have to be generated. The PV arrays put out over 400VDC, even though low current. That seems to me to be a very efficient transfer of energy. I have solar PV but could not use this idea since I am using micro inverters.

ebill3 said:

And, the panel would have to output >400 volts.

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Not really. You are never supplying 400V to your car at home. At 120V it's not even close but that is irrelevant. The solar panel is one of the more stupid Nissan Marketing gimmicks.

EVDRIVER said:

The solar panel is one of the more stupid Nissan Marketing gimmicks.

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You like my idea of a faux solar panel?.. its just a vinyl film and can be removed without damaging the paint.. cover the whole roof with it.

EVDRIVER said:

ebill3 said:

And, the panel would have to output >400 volts.

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Not really. You are never supplying 400V to your car at home. At 120V it's not even close but that is irrelevant. The solar panel is one of the more stupid Nissan Marketing gimmicks.

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Really?

Well, then how do you charge a 403 volt battery?
What is the output of the charger? Not >400 volts?

Bill

I assume the on-board charger steps voltage up to 400+.

I doubt the small solar panel would have enough power to even drive the overhead for a DC-DC converter let alone put any power in.

ebill3 said:

EVDRIVER said:

ebill3 said:

And, the panel would have to output >400 volts.

Click to expand...

Not really. You are never supplying 400V to your car at home. At 120V it's not even close but that is irrelevant. The solar panel is one of the more stupid Nissan Marketing gimmicks.

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Really?

Well, then how do you charge a 403 volt battery?
What is the output of the charger? Not >400 volts?

Bill

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I never said the charger does not output a higher voltage I said the supply voltage is never 400V on L2. Meaning the panel does not have to output 400V. I can get high voltage out of a 9v battery with a transformer. Regardless it is pointless in terms of the worthless panel.

Anyone who loves the Leaf solar panel should be THRILLED with vinyl stick-on solar panels!
They achieve the exact same effect at a fraction of the cost.


When the power was out throughout San Diego, I was thinking impure thoughts about hooking my grid-tie (dead) solar system to the Leaf's DC CHAdeMO port. It's not that far off at all.

My arrays of 11 panels each put out 399 open-circuit volts in sunlight, and each array is good for 2kW. It's not a leap of engineering to think it couldn't be mated with a minimum of conversion and logic.

If nothing else, a daytime charge could allow the Leaf to run a 12v DC/AC inverter all night long with ease. If only it didn't void the warranty.

How many arrays would fit in the hatch of a Leaf?, how thick is each panel?.. drive to where you are going, deploy the panels on the ground and charge your battery until the sun goes down.... camping in the wilderness with a Leaf.

GroundLoop said:

When the power was out throughout San Diego, I was thinking impure thoughts about hooking my grid-tie (dead) solar system to the Leaf's DC CHAdeMO port. It's not that far off at all. My arrays of 11 panels each put out 399 open-circuit volts in sunlight, and each array is good for 2kW. It's not a leap of engineering to think it couldn't be mated with a minimum of conversion and logic.

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Except that you can't just feed a fixed voltage to the CHAdeMO port . Something outside the car has to read the CAN messages the car sends, and provide exactly the voltage and current that the BMS believes is proper for the battery at that instant in time.

Ray

Herm said:

How many arrays would fit in the hatch of a Leaf?, how thick is each panel?.. drive to where you are going, deploy the panels on the ground and charge your battery until the sun goes down.... camping in the wilderness with a Leaf.

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Or, how about my "portable carport" idea I mention occasionally on this board. Carry some aluminum tubes in that extra-deep trunk space the Leaf has and, when you get where you are going, set up a 10' by 20' framework around your car, with the top tilted toward the south. Spread some of those thin film solar sheets over the top and connect it to a portable inverter. Plug in your "trickle charge" EVSE and let it do its thing.

OK, so it'll never pay for itself, but it will protect your car from the sun, keep it cool, and possibly even cut down on dings from neighboring car doors, while convincing everyone that you are the greenest. Not to mention give you maybe as much as 10kWh on a sunny June day.

Ray

It sounds like you are a possible customer for the car cover made out of solar cell material, getting that charge would be an added motivator to putting on the old nasty car cover, maybe in a few years.

GroundLoop said:

Anyone who loves the Leaf solar panel should be THRILLED with vinyl stick-on solar panels!
They achieve the exact same effect at a fraction of the cost.


When the power was out throughout San Diego, I was thinking impure thoughts about hooking my grid-tie (dead) solar system to the Leaf's DC CHAdeMO port. It's not that far off at all.

My arrays of 11 panels each put out 399 open-circuit volts in sunlight, and each array is good for 2kW. It's not a leap of engineering to think it couldn't be mated with a minimum of conversion and logic.

If nothing else, a daytime charge could allow the Leaf to run a 12v DC/AC inverter all night long with ease. If only it didn't void the warranty.

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How are you going to handle the high current spike as soon as the car is attached to your solar. This is why you can't just connect solar directly to a home as the panels can't handle the load spike from things like refrigerators.

To get any real charge you would need panels that fold out to 9' wide and 16' long while you are parked.
The added weight and profile may not help your efficiency.

The highest efficiency panels are up around 36% now, semi-reasonably priced units are around 24% The roof area (if the whole roof area were used) could provide up to about 700 watts of solar power using newer style cells. Of coarse that would easily add roughly $5k to the price. (if the cells can be had at mass production prices)

That would provide some range if you could park mid day in a non-shaded lot. My fathers ZX40 minivan sports a 60 watt panel to run the desulphator, it is enough to gain a few miles a day but that little car only uses about 110-170 watt/hrs a mile.