/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10154378
>>10154345
>minimum size of a standard parking space shall be nine feet wide and eighteen feet long.

That's nearly 50 square meters. At 100% solar efficiency (1kw per square meter) that'd be 50 kilowatts of solar energy.

>most efficient solar panels on the market today have efficiency ratings as high as 22.2%, whereas the majority of panels range from 15% to 17% efficiency rating.

Using the highest rating of solar panel, 50kw drops down to 11.1kw. Most public car charging stations are Level 2 public charging stations.

>With a level 2 charger, it takes around four hours to fully charge a 30 kWh battery car (standard battery for full electric cars). [up to 19.2 kilowatts/about 70 miles of range per hour of charging]

That's 19.2kw for a Level 2 charging station versus 11.1kw solar efficiency before transmission losses and storage losses. Using an average solar panel that gets 16% of the energy from the sun that's only 8kw minus any losses from panel to car battery. I think that getting 5kw would be more realistic in the real world. 5kw is a long ways from 19.2kw, but is closer to household charging where you'd get 4.5 miles of range per hour of charging.

All of that calculation is a bit suspect since we haven't established the type of electric vehicle being used. Also, parking lots are rarely full and even less filled with people charging cars. Thus, you have a shit load more panel space that can capture energy for fewer cars and store excess into batteries (more energy loss). In the end, it is doable, but only because there's not yet enough electric cars to strain the system. In the future, it will be barely viable with current electric car technology. But, in the future electric cars may be even more efficient than now.

I think it is a very close break even point currently. Where the amount of charging you are getting will be just enough to let you limp to the next charging station. Is that worth it? Is that helping the environment? I don't know.