The additional benefits of the naturally cooler effect from the shading along with some protection from rain, make this the perfect choice for solar charging. Large business sites, shopping malls, hospitals, sporting venues that have large parking facilities, etc., etc.
Or you could plant a tree for some shade rather than erect this steel and glass monstrosity that serves no practical purpose from an energy grid perspective, rather an exercise in virtue signalling street furniture clutter!
A parking lot full of these Solar Paneled Chargers connected to a MegaPack would probably zero the energy costs of the average commercial building. Add to that the ability to earn income from selling power for charging and it’s a no-brainer.
Really like this drop in design. Also, really like the truck that delivered it. When Robert first said a crane would be used to put it inplace, I expected a seperate unit, but nice to see an all-in-one unit for everything.
Priority on these types of chargers is what is needed. Many people drive to work to the shopping centers, cinemas, places where you will spend 1 hour up to 8 hours. You can regain the power you will use getting to and from plus extra. Ideal for people who can not charge at home. If all car parks had 2 or 3 kw charging it would help alot
I charge only from 2x pod point chargers at work and only for around 3 hours every 2 weeks for my use case, it made me able to buy an EV as I have no charging at my rented flat. These chargers could help others like me consider an EV as well.
Workplace charging is great. Even a 3kW charger can give you plenty of miles range if you're parked up for 7-8 hours while at work. Most commuters won't even need to charge every day.
@@decimal1815 fortunately I’ve got a 22kw charging Renault Zoe which seems to be getting about 16 kW charging max at work so normally done in around 2 1/2 hours
@@decimal1815 And what happens to the cost of electricity? Funny that an EV just caught fire in an underground parking garage in Korea, never in my life have I seen a combustion vehicle just catch fire while sitting. You severely underestimate on how much power solar actually produces.
@@DustinDonald-cz9ot In the United States, EVs caught fire at a rate of 25 per 100,000 units sold, compared with 1,530 for gasoline-powered vehicles and 3,475 for hybrids, according to a study conducted by insurance company AutoInsuranceEZ published in 2023 using data from the National Transportation Safety Board. The number of fires per 10,000 EVs was 1.3 last year in South Korea, compared with 1.9 for internal combustion engine-powered vehicles, according to the Science & Technology Policy Institute.
Thank you for the video, Peter. It's progress like this that gives me hope for the future. It would be great to put these in every parking lot in America!
Aa someone who happily finds his PHEV charged when he leaves the office, I fully appreciate the 'slow charge while you are doing stuff' concept. The garage at my office has installed new units but hasn't turned them on yet. I am curious if they will be at 240 volts or the standard 120v that I have been plugging in to. This concept of urilizing solar energy is excellent PLUS that roof will help shelter drivers from rain & snow when they are plugging in or unplugging.
I've been saying in comments for some time that if you look at satellite maps of the US, but even the UK that there are VAST car parks where solar could be put above the parking spot and people charge while they work/shop/eat. It's really a no brainer. Even more so because anyone who has been to places in the US like California / Florida / Texas knows that your car becomes an oven when you park out in the open, but if you park under a tree you risk it getting pooped on. So not only would a solar charger charge your car while it's parked but the shade would keep your car cool.
Having lived in sunnier climes than the UK, shading is a good point. But looking at the news today, I'd hope a panel array that could be folded away from any hurricane or tornado, and could then be unfolded when other supplies were knocked out would be good.
Zunder in Spain has deployed tens of those and they start by using them as off grid chargers. They use them to provide a charging station before it can be upgraded to a fully high performance at 360 kW. If you travel through Spain, Zunder is your best option.
@@marclang7431 Being able to transport with ease - with existing transportation, on existing infrastructure - and then install an entire, partially self-powered, EV charging station in just a little over half a working day, is.... wait for it... wait for it... a stroke of friggin genius! 🤓💪 This could be shipped anywhere in the world and installed on location in less time than it takes to plan for a like for like system (which there are currently no 8 car EV Charger Systems), by the closest competitor.
@@marclang7431 It can do 12 cars Relatively slow speeds, but then it is a 'destination charger' rather than a 'rapid charger'. Perfect for when you are parked up for more than a couple of hours
I'm a huge proponent of solar who has a fairly good understand of it's capabilities. What this type of charging station provides is what all charging stations need. Shelter constant battery on site to run LED lighting low voltage and high speed charging bays with over head sun shade and rain cover dry bays. Charging in extreme sunshine and pouring rain are ridiculous... this resolves those issues...
Great for the UK, but these modular hubs need to start spreading out to the ends of the Earth. Dot these every 70 miles across the Gibson in the outback of Australia, add a starlink WiFi hotspot for payment comms.. now run a line out across the Yunkon.. they make the petrol station network look like a joke. EVs are considerably more flexible once we are through this transition period.
These are not rapid chargers they are destination chargers and such for when you parked for 3 hours, having them only every 70 miles is pretty much useless they need to be in every car park
@@damiendye6623 I was talking about other uses for this type of infrastructure. My examples were in some extremely remote locations as this IS the appropriate infrastructure to put way out in the outback etc. It would be sporadically used, run exclusively on solar and charge by AC not DC. DC requires more hardware to charge a vehicle, which adds expense and will be less reliable. If someone is trekking across a desert or to the artic, then 70 miles is a good distance to stop and top up and not too far where you couldn’t skip one which isn’t working. You would also not mind using it as an oasis to camp and so waiting for a few hours isn’t a problem… they would be a sensible tourist spots like look outs etc.
I wonder if they need to be mandatory. If they provide a net savings (or even income?) for the host, then schools and businesses should be lining up to have them installed. BTW, having a roof over where you park in the rain or hot sun is an appreciated benefit.
Bloody hell, i wouldn't normally comment on things like this but the guy at 1 minute 34 under the container whilst its being supported by the Hiab...... That's about as dangerous as it gets. This isn't one of those nit picking posts. I lost a friend in an accident involving a HIAB and i would hate to see another person get injured or killed when its completely avoidable. Rule number one of rigging and slinging is never ever get underneath a suspended load. Hiab hydraulic failure, Sling/chain failure and that guy is straight out dead. These chargers are a great idea though and it would be great to implement in other places but please just lift them with abit more care in the future!
Where I live in Perth Australia, we make masses of solar power on our roof tops. We should be installing granny chargers at train station car parks to sop up the excess energy in the day, with the added benefit of reducing the energy demand in the evening. We need to think differently about energy.
I also live in Perth and I wrote to our metro train service provider 2years ago suggesting that they have no excuse not to install type 2 chargers at our railway stations - fast forward to today and they have just installed multiple fast chargers at our latest northern line extension train stations. If a system like what we see in this video was available in Perth it would have been a far better system that provides a solar panel covered roof to provide shade 👍
@@ChrisJayBee Glad to hear about the installation. If you have ever been to the Ellenbrook shopping centre, the South East car park has a huge number of solar panels. I am not sure if there is EV charging, but it appears they can probably provide a good percentage of the power needed to run the centre. It is the kind of thing that makes sense!
Hi Aussie405 here is a lift from the official Metronet website with regards to Ellenbrook - “The station has achieved a five-star Green Star Design Review Rating, boasting 200 solar panels and ten electric vehicle charging bays in the design.” So it looks like we can look forward to new stations having chargers 🎉 let’s hope they will retrofit the older stations as well 👍
This the stuff. More of this please. Can we have more electric busses, lorries, narrowboats, off-grid projects, electric ferries/boats and everyman stories vs talking to a CEO in a posh office about how wonderful his product is.
@@marclang7431 Check out the ember inter-city bus services in Scotland. Been going for a few years and later this month adds a new service from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Latest news this week ... is the EV bus fleet for Salisbury and Isle of Wight. Any future replacement ferries for the Isle of Wight would be a no-brainer for electric options.
@@marclang7431 they've all failed have they, ALL of them? Oh well, I'm going to continue in my reality vacuum and enjoy reading about them in news and watching them on RUclips. You should write to Volvo though as they keep building and selling electric lorries and someone really ought to tell them they've all failed.
Think about a new petrol station. Multiple 10,000 gallon tanks underground in very large concrete boxes. Leak sensors, water sensors, pumps vents in each tank. All of the above connected to multiple pumps with pipes fottings and hoses. Huge metal roof over the entire site. In US there's 5,000 fuel station fires annually. Again here in US in our town and several others diesel fuel ended up in the peteol tanks ruining dozens of motors and costing millions to cleanup. OR a large truck drops off a pop-up electric fueling station, boots it down, connects to power and voila a proper safer lowere cost refueling spot.
Exactly, people who say ''the grid can't handle it, we cannot build it up'', I am pretty sure it is actually cheaper to run a few cables to a spot once than to all year round drive trucks full of petrol to fill in those tanks that also need to be built first, especially if you also think about drilling the oil and refining it, all the losses with that, losses with transport, evaporation, not to even mention losses while running the car, most of it is just waste heat contributing to warming everything around you. It is just costly and inefficient. Sure putting wind or solar or batteries up and adding wires and substations cost money, but I bet it must be way cheaper to maintain and way less wasteful when it comes to actual energy transmission and use than taking oil and wasting huge amount of energy to then use a small part of it for actual moving the car along the way. Even if we talk about oil, there are very likely better uses to it than use it for driving a car... It is especially insane in my country where we a) do not have oil b) do not have a refinery to make petrol, so all the petrol we have is import, most gas stations are foreign companies... At the same time if there was a will and investment (and finally there is), we can power ourselves 3x over with wind, solar + batteries maybe balancing it with nuclear from neighbors in very bad periods. And yet there is still resistance to becoming self sufficient in how we ''fuel'' our cars...
IMHO.... Converting a petrol station to an EV charging station should be done thus: Replace the big underground tanks, with big underground batteries (sodium batteries for safety & price, plus size/weight isn't a problem). Replace the fuel pumps with charge points, I reckon you could get 16-24 into a typical forecourt, maybe only 8-12 on a smaller one. Replace the existing EV chargers (if any) with a single petrol/diesel pump, probably with a couple of smallish overground tanks; you're only going to need to store a couple of thousand gallons, given that most people will be driving EVs. If space permits, convert the shop into a cafe/shop, so people have somewhere to sit while they're waiting for their charge... Using underground batteries will allow the fuel station to remain on a fairly low-spec electricity connection, yet still offer multi-hundred kW chargers. Obviously, next time the electricity tanker drivers go on strike, and the electrons fail to be delivered, the chargers can fall back to a lower level, to match the available supply, if the storage batteries become depleted.
Brilliant design! This should be implemented in the United States. There are hundreds and hundreds of parking lots in Los Angeles that can be installed.
Yes and I'll have a helping of "Peace on Earth" and an "End world hunger" on the side. You hear that sound, it's your alarm clock! Time to stop dreaming wake up and go to work.
@@pauls3075 Yes and I will have a desert of your tears as you realise that the world can not run on hate and negativity alone. Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of your mum telling you to get out her basement and live on your own.
@@taefravis But wait I cant make it on my own I need my mum to look after me.... hahaha you tell yourself whatever you need to get you through the day, I dont need to work anymore because of schmucks like you.
This is fantastic and a bigger version of what I have seen at Everything Electric North. It is something that is needed in all the car parks for places cars will be parked for a few hours.
Nice, this is awesome! Love to see them everywhere! I've been saying for years, we need Level 2 charging everywhere (here in the US) but it seems like everyone is focusing on DCFC, which is a shame.
I'm in Wellingborough, we have 4 EV chargers at Tesco, another 5 in the indoor shopping centre car park and now we have two streets with on street chargers .installed
Railway station car parks! Vehicles are usually left there for most of the day, and the owners are charged quite a lot of money. Why not provide solar charging without a battery, just straight from the solar panels through a suitable regulator and shared between all the vehicles present that can use it? Where a battery is installed, its depreciation is probably the biggest running cost of the station (maybe in some places keeping the solar panels clean is the biggest cost; it depends on the diet and habits of the local avian population).
@@cedriclynch indeed, just one of many places - there was a bunch of covered areas going up in a park and ride in St Ives in Cambs but the process looked slow and painful - this "drop and go" is what's needed as all the assembly can be done off-site and then they just need a spark to hook up to the grid if needed - the problem with trying to use the PV directly is still the intermittent nature of output - EV charging is quite a finicky process with a minimum charge current of 6A @ 240V (1440W) on single phase so having the grid to supplement makes sense where it's possible. Battery storage doesn't make much sense due to the losses every time energy is moved around. As for cleaning, IME of having PV up for 10+ years now, it doesn't bother me as the gains are marginal at best for the effort needed to get up there and clean - these could easily be folded down for cleaning I guess so it's not a massive overhead...no mention of rough costs for one of these 12 bay jobbies as usual 🤔
@@Umski I have seen the system in St. Ives. It is taking months or even years, and the area with the solar panels is cordoned off until the system is completed.
Workplace charging is definitely the way to go to put sunlight directly into cars, especially for apartment dwellers who can't charge their cars while they're sleeping
I agree with a lot of the comments about this solution and the installation time ws impressive. How long was the preparation time, getting the cables laid and the car park resurfaced and painted?
However long you need. Also foundations, so the thing doesn't fall over the next time it gets windy. Other solutions are available that can be "just" plonked down, but they take more area above ground, and don't necessarily have a solar canopy. This is all nice, but there are other ways of doing things, too.
Superb ! I have been telling people for decades that parking lots should install solar. They shade the car from the sun and charge while you shop. I wish this would catch on in the USA but there are too many troglodytes driving SUVs ! Thank you for the years of productive rants !!
Who is paying for this? How many parking spaces were lost for this installation? Is it free standing without the need to be connected to the mains? How much power does it actually make and how many cars can it charge in a day?
"but there are too many troglodytes driving SUVs" - the dumbest thing being - if the entire lot were covered with solar canopies, even if they're driving an F150 with the wide arse and 5th wheel, they could STILL benefit from the shade the solar panels provide! OK, they might block up 4 bays with their 12 litre behemoth... but they're still benefiting! And maybe seeing a bunch of cars nearby getting cheap "fuel" might make them wonder...
@@dikkybee4003 To answer your questions contained in your little rant. 1) Who is paying for this! - The business owner will pay for it just like they pay for everything else such as expansion or renovating their shop etc and they recoup the cost through usage of the product - business 101 DUH! 2) How many car parking spaces are lost to this? - NONE as there is still a carpark space, just has an EV charger at it. In time there will soon be hardly any ICE vehicles on the roads so seeing as EVs are still vehicles they will need to park as will ICE and the fact that some spaces or all will have charges means no spaces lost - DUH! 3) Is it free standing without need for mains connected? - You did not pay attention and instead just rushed to troll. This particular charger is mains powered but the rest will have a storage battery that will be powered by the solar and any times where extra energy is needed it will be provided by the grid as it is also mains connected. This is not an issue as in both cases the fact that solar is present means that less energy is needed from the grid and when the site is not being used much that energy produced can be sen back to the grid making it very efficient - DUH! 4) How much power does it make? Once again you did not pay attention did you? It can charge up to 22Kw per charger so you do the math? 5) How many cars can it charge per day? That depends on factors such as how long an EV driver spends there charging as this is not a fast charger site where throughput is important. This is a slow site where people spend an hour our more doing other things like work etc - DUH! Now please stop your ranting!
Their are leaking tanks everywhere. There's a spot down the road where there used to be a Chevron Fuel station. They've been working on remediating that site for 25+ years.
Agree 100% We need much more of this. Both on street and at shopping centres, public carparks and places of work. But please can we have solar canopies over rapid chargers too? I think the only one I've seen is at Gridserves chargers at Cornwall Services. It would keep us dry/shadded and provide some of the power. Also can someone ask why they don't put solar panels above the grid battery storage installations? Wouldn't it shade the battery containers and add to the solar power collected without using extra land?
Sounds like a great step forward - prefab makes a lot of sense to minimise disruption to areas like this. Did I miss the part where they discuss how long it took to get the wiring to that point on the carpark? That must take a bit of time and planning. Also, love the lack of app - making it payable by debit/credit card is fantastic.
About the same. There are shipping-container-sized tank/pump combinations that you can more or less plonk down and attach to mains power. Two pumps, typically. Not really a place to park as well, like this. At least you don't have to dig up the leaking tanks and the now toxic soil when you remove it. Urban dinosaur juice stations in Norway are being redeveloped for something else these days, and you had better have some money set aside for what awaits you below ground if you are involved in a project like that!
Massive fan of this type of system. And given the university's location they will not need 000's of chargers so a few of these dotted about with unsmart solar canopies everywhere else is going to be the sweet spot. Hope to see exactly these at other long dwell locations. Theme parks, train station car parks etc where they are absolutely perfect fit.
This is the only way to scale ev charging. 2 installations a day an a factory behind where things can be produced at scale. If we are really serious at ev transition, this is the way
Now we're talking! I'm not sure why this isn't the norm... every place where people do something (eg shopping, gym, movies etc) should have these. At dedicated EV charging stations they also need something for people to do while charging, eg coffee shop & internet cafe etc.
I would imagine their module approach could mean they are priority dropped into areas where there is something to do? Imagine if you ran a footfall business such as a roadside cafe and you could slap in a honey pot like this to drew and detain people for well over an hour etc Campsites, hotels, even a staff benefit at workplaces :):)
That's not actually that easy, as the grid keep tight control of the amount of solar in a given area. If the local district network operator (DNO) calculates there's not enough usage for the local area, then they'll charge heavily for network modifications, making such plans kinda pointless.
Well done University of Surrey - good to be a market leader all other uni's should follow suit - Come on University of Derby you've the space and infrastructure - get one in !!
Brilliant, we had solar installed over our car park at work, it took weeks! Even worse it has no EV charging. No doubt we'll have closures coming up for that...
Id be interested to see any preparation works going on. Dont get me wrong, it is really good, but something installed as quickly as this was is only possible with meticulous planning. I can see that ducting would only need to be run to one end of the canopy but there must've been groundworks for the footings at each of the uprights that hold it all in place.
Agreed. Additionally, I was interested in how much preparation their local grid needed for this. However from the clips and B Roll it showed of it getting lowered down and people walking past (1:52) it appears as though as far as footings go it's simply large thick plates bolted down to the ground with this bolted down onto those plates? Of course there must be channels too for the wiring but I'd be interested to find out if it just a case of bolting it down to a giant plate that is itself bolted down or if there are some proper manufactured footings under there besides just a large lump of concrete they just drilled into.
At the very start pre-installed cables can be seen. These tails have been run in conduits to a nearby kiosk where Robert turns the system on. The blue columns will be sitting above their own concrete slab which will have had steel threaded studs cast-in place. (The studs will match holes in the bases of the blue columns.) The concrete slabs will have had the cable conduits put in place before pouring. Trenches will have been dug to lay the conduits in place. The trenches were then backfilled. The carpark was then resurfaced and had new markings applied. Finally, the fun part. A lorry turned up and plonked a solar charging system in place in just over three hours. (Very impressive lorry manoeuvring. I liked that)
Superb, this is one of the places where we should be installing solar panels, not only to charge vehicles but to provide electricity to local businesses and homes. We don’t need to be covering valuable food producing farmland with “solar farms” or spoiling our countryside with miles of pylons, produce power locally and use it locally.
“Valuable food producing farmland”?!! Do you know any farmers? Do you think if they got paid anything other than the pittance they get for producing our food that they would choose to give land over to solar?
Most solar and onshore wind is installed on fairly unproductive land, renewables make this land much more productive. A UK study concluded that only 3% of land, all classed as unproductive, would be required to provide 225TWh of electricity to the UK, which when coupled with offshore wind would satisfy the entire UK electrical energy need. 3% of land is about as much as used by golf courses in the UK for recreation.
Mixing solar with agriculture can actually be beneficial. Panels can provide shade for certain types of crops and also help with water retention during dry years. You can also use the same land for grazing. Doesn't have to be either/or.
One of the large Solar Farms that I know of is on land that was dying from over use with monocropping. The land is starting to recover and will be fully usable again in some 30 years. For now the crop is Electricity.
Hi Robert , great to see car chargers backed with solar energy in ideal location. One hell of a car port. We are at the moment just running one EV in a house with four vehicle. At the moment we EV change 95% of the time at home which makes economical sense. The question is , what is legality of someone parks ice vehicle on a EV charging bay, stopping EV being charged. Keep up the good & enjoyable work.
All the supermarkets have to jump onto this. They always have been interested in selling cheaper energy for cars, (petrol), so why not move into electricity. An optimal time to charge your vehicle is when you go and do your weekly, fortnightly shop. Inter supermarket competition should hopefully keep prices competitive and we can then say goodbye to the 80p/kWhr rip offs elsewhere. One can imagine large solar roofs over large car parks that are able to draw in and return energy to the grid thereby negating the need for any battery capacity. Shoppers stay dry under the roof. Just seems so obvious.
2:29 Nothing magic with dynamic load sharing, it is part of the standard. The charging protocol can dynamically change the charge current from 6 to 32A in 1 amp steps. So you can charge 15 cars at once with a 22kW grid connection...
I`m using electric cars for over 7 years now and i totally agree that the need for easy accesable AC chargers is way more important than having DC fast chargers in urban regions (which are always way to expensive to daily charge your EV). Make it AC, make it solar assisted and make it less expensive...thats the way I wanna see this in the future. really interesting project, thanks for showing this.
I just thought... this is basicly 42 Panels, right? So some cars are silver/gray or other other light colors. Would bifacial panels would benefit from this and how much could be improved, if they just paint the floore in a light color. Ok, maybe the painting is a bit too expensive. Also yes, parking should have solar roofs, like truck stops etc. Here in germany we starting to have EV trucks, so that could be usefull and as he says - it's space that is already used, so why not use it more and prevent the space from collecting heat by covering it. Even for non-ev's, this should be beneficial, as they then need less A/C power at startup to cool down the inside of the cars.
Perfect. Thought about this solution many moons ago. One further improvement (though more intrusive initially), would be road-mounted, cable-free induction-charging).
Love the enthusiasm of Peter the passer by! Renewable energy is a joyful thing and it’s great to see people’s reactions to it
The additional benefits of the naturally cooler effect from the shading along with some protection from rain, make this the perfect choice for solar charging. Large business sites, shopping malls, hospitals, sporting venues that have large parking facilities, etc., etc.
Alton Towers
Or you could plant a tree for some shade rather than erect this steel and glass monstrosity that serves no practical purpose from an energy grid perspective, rather an exercise in virtue signalling street furniture clutter!
@@natswii how does it make no practical purpose ?
A parking lot full of these Solar Paneled Chargers connected to a MegaPack would probably zero the energy costs of the average commercial building. Add to that the ability to earn income from selling power for charging and it’s a no-brainer.
@@natswii I don't see many trees planted on that carpark so it's just replacing blank tarmac with something useful.
Really like this drop in design. Also, really like the truck that delivered it. When Robert first said a crane would be used to put it inplace, I expected a seperate unit, but nice to see an all-in-one unit for everything.
It was a cool truck! Lorry? Vehicle!
No stupid app. Thank you
Yeah. Well done that man.
what a fantastic idea, hope the rest of the world is watching.
Love this! Makes so much sense! No one needs to charge at home if everyone can just charge at work, easy!
Priority on these types of chargers is what is needed. Many people drive to work to the shopping centers, cinemas, places where you will spend 1 hour up to 8 hours. You can regain the power you will use getting to and from plus extra. Ideal for people who can not charge at home. If all car parks had 2 or 3 kw charging it would help alot
Fantastic! What a great idea. I'd be happy to see those popping up all over the place.
I charge only from 2x pod point chargers at work and only for around 3 hours every 2 weeks for my use case, it made me able to buy an EV as I have no charging at my rented flat. These chargers could help others like me consider an EV as well.
Workplace charging is great. Even a 3kW charger can give you plenty of miles range if you're parked up for 7-8 hours while at work. Most commuters won't even need to charge every day.
@@decimal1815 fortunately I’ve got a 22kw charging Renault Zoe which seems to be getting about 16 kW charging max at work so normally done in around 2 1/2 hours
@@decimal1815 And what happens to the cost of electricity? Funny that an EV just caught fire in an underground parking garage in Korea, never in my life have I seen a combustion vehicle just catch fire while sitting. You severely underestimate on how much power solar actually produces.
@@DustinDonald-cz9ot In the United States, EVs caught fire at a rate of 25 per 100,000 units sold, compared with 1,530 for gasoline-powered vehicles and 3,475 for hybrids, according to a study conducted by insurance company AutoInsuranceEZ published in 2023 using data from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The number of fires per 10,000 EVs was 1.3 last year in South Korea, compared with 1.9 for internal combustion engine-powered vehicles, according to the Science & Technology Policy Institute.
🤗 THANKS ROBERT,FOR BEING THERE TO SHARE THIS 😎🔋🔋🔋
Wow! Just amazing. Well done 3ti
Thank you for the video, Peter. It's progress like this that gives me hope for the future. It would be great to put these in every parking lot in America!
Aa someone who happily finds his PHEV charged when he leaves the office, I fully appreciate the 'slow charge while you are doing stuff' concept.
The garage at my office has installed new units but hasn't turned them on yet. I am curious if they will be at 240 volts or the standard 120v that I have been plugging in to.
This concept of urilizing solar energy is excellent PLUS that roof will help shelter drivers from rain & snow when they are plugging in or unplugging.
I've been saying in comments for some time that if you look at satellite maps of the US, but even the UK that there are VAST car parks where solar could be put above the parking spot and people charge while they work/shop/eat. It's really a no brainer. Even more so because anyone who has been to places in the US like California / Florida / Texas knows that your car becomes an oven when you park out in the open, but if you park under a tree you risk it getting pooped on. So not only would a solar charger charge your car while it's parked but the shade would keep your car cool.
I agree, but pigeons are ruthless. They will sit in the girders of the solar roofs in the carpark and still poop on your car. LOL.
I agree. And shade will also benefit the battery when charging on hot days.
Having lived in sunnier climes than the UK, shading is a good point.
But looking at the news today, I'd hope a panel array that could be folded away from any hurricane or tornado, and could then be unfolded when other supplies were knocked out would be good.
I understand that President Macron has decreed that all car parks in France are to be solar roofed in the future.
France have recently change the law so new car parks above 50 spaces are required by law to have solar power.
And a lovely British gentleman he interviewed too. 👍
Zunder in Spain has deployed tens of those and they start by using them as off grid chargers. They use them to provide a charging station before it can be upgraded to a fully high performance at 360 kW.
If you travel through Spain, Zunder is your best option.
Really wish to see more of these all over Europe not just UK.
This is a true marvel; this makes me feel good to be a human.
Awesome idea! We need these in every carpark in every town.
This is an exceptional piece of engineering genius! 😮
How exactly is this an 'exceptional piece of engineering'?
@@marclang7431 Did you not watch the video or are you so sacred of anything Agnew you rushed to troll first?
@@marclang7431 Being able to transport with ease - with existing transportation, on existing infrastructure - and then install an entire, partially self-powered, EV charging station in just a little over half a working day, is....
wait for it...
wait for it...
a stroke of friggin genius! 🤓💪
This could be shipped anywhere in the world and installed on location in less time than it takes to plan for a like for like system (which there are currently no 8 car EV Charger Systems), by the closest competitor.
Just got to find a manufacturer here in Australia we have perfect sites for them . Keep smiling everyone 😊
Perhaps the company who developed this one would allow an Aussie manufacturer to produce it under licence?
@@Brian-om2hh
Did cross my mind too . We have enough solar installers
This is a great idea (including no app!), we need 10 thousand of these to be installed across the country asap.
Lol. All powered by what?
@@marclang7431 Didn't you watch the whole video?
@@marclang7431did you watch the video?
@@marclang7431 Solar and wind , did you not watch the video before crying lol?
@@taefravis lol. The UK still uses fossil fuels as their main energy source when it comes to power stations. Wake up, bud!
Level 2 at every parking lot would solve most of the EV charging problems. Way to go UK!!!🎉
This is a level 2 solar charger for only one car, max
@@marclang7431 It can do 12 cars
Relatively slow speeds, but then it is a 'destination charger' rather than a 'rapid charger'. Perfect for when you are parked up for more than a couple of hours
@@KUU-wc9ld 1800w per car? Not really a charger is it?
@@marclang7431 where did you get 1800W from?
@@ihopthsuzrnmeisfree 22kw by 12 is 1833w.
What a good clever idea this is .
This must come to the US! Brilliant!
There shouldn't be any reason why it couldn't, surely.....
I'm a huge proponent of solar who has a fairly good understand of it's capabilities. What this type of charging station provides is what all charging stations need. Shelter constant battery on site to run LED lighting low voltage and high speed charging bays with over head sun shade and rain cover dry bays. Charging in extreme sunshine and pouring rain are ridiculous... this resolves those issues...
Great for the UK, but these modular hubs need to start spreading out to the ends of the Earth. Dot these every 70 miles across the Gibson in the outback of Australia, add a starlink WiFi hotspot for payment comms.. now run a line out across the Yunkon.. they make the petrol station network look like a joke. EVs are considerably more flexible once we are through this transition period.
These are not rapid chargers they are destination chargers and such for when you parked for 3 hours, having them only every 70 miles is pretty much useless they need to be in every car park
@@damiendye6623 I was talking about other uses for this type of infrastructure. My examples were in some extremely remote locations as this IS the appropriate infrastructure to put way out in the outback etc. It would be sporadically used, run exclusively on solar and charge by AC not DC. DC requires more hardware to charge a vehicle, which adds expense and will be less reliable. If someone is trekking across a desert or to the artic, then 70 miles is a good distance to stop and top up and not too far where you couldn’t skip one which isn’t working. You would also not mind using it as an oasis to camp and so waiting for a few hours isn’t a problem… they would be a sensible tourist spots like look outs etc.
FANTASTIC! these chargers should be mandatory for all carparks over a certain size.
I wonder if they need to be mandatory. If they provide a net savings (or even income?) for the host, then schools and businesses should be lining up to have them installed.
BTW, having a roof over where you park in the rain or hot sun is an appreciated benefit.
Please do not add more regulations. This stuff is coming. It’s already cost competitive
They are in France.
@@charleshatch4363No, they are in Guildford, Surrey, England, it's south of London.
You gonna pay for all that?
Bloody hell, i wouldn't normally comment on things like this but the guy at 1 minute 34 under the container whilst its being supported by the Hiab...... That's about as dangerous as it gets. This isn't one of those nit picking posts. I lost a friend in an accident involving a HIAB and i would hate to see another person get injured or killed when its completely avoidable. Rule number one of rigging and slinging is never ever get underneath a suspended load. Hiab hydraulic failure, Sling/chain failure and that guy is straight out dead. These chargers are a great idea though and it would be great to implement in other places but please just lift them with abit more care in the future!
Where I live in Perth Australia, we make masses of solar power on our roof tops. We should be installing granny chargers at train station car parks to sop up the excess energy in the day, with the added benefit of reducing the energy demand in the evening. We need to think differently about energy.
I also live in Perth and I wrote to our metro train service provider 2years ago suggesting that they have no excuse not to install type 2 chargers at our railway stations - fast forward to today and they have just installed multiple fast chargers at our latest northern line extension train stations. If a system like what we see in this video was available in Perth it would have been a far better system that provides a solar panel covered roof to provide shade 👍
@@ChrisJayBee Glad to hear about the installation. If you have ever been to the Ellenbrook shopping centre, the South East car park has a huge number of solar panels. I am not sure if there is EV charging, but it appears they can probably provide a good percentage of the power needed to run the centre. It is the kind of thing that makes sense!
Hi Aussie405 here is a lift from the official Metronet website with regards to Ellenbrook - “The station has achieved a five-star Green Star Design Review Rating, boasting 200 solar panels and ten electric vehicle charging bays in the design.”
So it looks like we can look forward to new stations having chargers 🎉 let’s hope they will retrofit the older stations as well 👍
This the stuff. More of this please. Can we have more electric busses, lorries, narrowboats, off-grid projects, electric ferries/boats and everyman stories vs talking to a CEO in a posh office about how wonderful his product is.
They are talking up every new idea they can. Give it time
We have most of the things you ask for and they've all failed.
@@marclang7431 Check out the ember inter-city bus services in Scotland. Been going for a few years and later this month adds a new service from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Latest news this week ... is the EV bus fleet for Salisbury and Isle of Wight. Any future replacement ferries for the Isle of Wight would be a no-brainer for electric options.
@@marclang7431 We have a lot of the things mentioned and they are not failing, you are!
@@marclang7431 they've all failed have they, ALL of them?
Oh well, I'm going to continue in my reality vacuum and enjoy reading about them in news and watching them on RUclips.
You should write to Volvo though as they keep building and selling electric lorries and someone really ought to tell them they've all failed.
Great. This should be at all workplace carparks. One question how much does it cost per KWH?
That will probably be down to whoever buys, hires or installs it I imagine....
Thank you, Robert 😊
Think about a new petrol station. Multiple 10,000 gallon tanks underground in very large concrete boxes. Leak sensors, water sensors, pumps vents in each tank. All of the above connected to multiple pumps with pipes fottings and hoses. Huge metal roof over the entire site. In US there's 5,000 fuel station fires annually. Again here in US in our town and several others diesel fuel ended up in the peteol tanks ruining dozens of motors and costing millions to cleanup. OR a large truck drops off a pop-up electric fueling station, boots it down, connects to power and voila a proper safer lowere cost refueling spot.
Exactly. The only thing in the way of electrification is people fearing that the new stuff might not work but those fears will go away more and more
Exactly, people who say ''the grid can't handle it, we cannot build it up'', I am pretty sure it is actually cheaper to run a few cables to a spot once than to all year round drive trucks full of petrol to fill in those tanks that also need to be built first, especially if you also think about drilling the oil and refining it, all the losses with that, losses with transport, evaporation, not to even mention losses while running the car, most of it is just waste heat contributing to warming everything around you. It is just costly and inefficient. Sure putting wind or solar or batteries up and adding wires and substations cost money, but I bet it must be way cheaper to maintain and way less wasteful when it comes to actual energy transmission and use than taking oil and wasting huge amount of energy to then use a small part of it for actual moving the car along the way. Even if we talk about oil, there are very likely better uses to it than use it for driving a car...
It is especially insane in my country where we a) do not have oil b) do not have a refinery to make petrol, so all the petrol we have is import, most gas stations are foreign companies... At the same time if there was a will and investment (and finally there is), we can power ourselves 3x over with wind, solar + batteries maybe balancing it with nuclear from neighbors in very bad periods. And yet there is still resistance to becoming self sufficient in how we ''fuel'' our cars...
IMHO.... Converting a petrol station to an EV charging station should be done thus: Replace the big underground tanks, with big underground batteries (sodium batteries for safety & price, plus size/weight isn't a problem). Replace the fuel pumps with charge points, I reckon you could get 16-24 into a typical forecourt, maybe only 8-12 on a smaller one. Replace the existing EV chargers (if any) with a single petrol/diesel pump, probably with a couple of smallish overground tanks; you're only going to need to store a couple of thousand gallons, given that most people will be driving EVs. If space permits, convert the shop into a cafe/shop, so people have somewhere to sit while they're waiting for their charge...
Using underground batteries will allow the fuel station to remain on a fairly low-spec electricity connection, yet still offer multi-hundred kW chargers. Obviously, next time the electricity tanker drivers go on strike, and the electrons fail to be delivered, the chargers can fall back to a lower level, to match the available supply, if the storage batteries become depleted.
This provides the same power as 2 liters of diesel, per hour, in full sun.
@@marclang7431 Since most of those 2 liters are wasted when used in a car, it is somewhat more when it comes to EV range than it sounds
Brilliant design! This should be implemented in the United States. There are hundreds and hundreds of parking lots in Los Angeles that can be installed.
There is a car park in Santa Monica near Los Angeles that has been roofed with solar panels for years. I think it belongs to the local authority.
This is brilliant. I hope this business gets plenty of orders.
I work at Silverstone they have and they are great.
Should be in every car park, every shopping mall & every work place in the entire country, publicly owned and run not for profit.
Yes and I'll have a helping of "Peace on Earth" and an "End world hunger" on the side.
You hear that sound, it's your alarm clock! Time to stop dreaming wake up and go to work.
@@pauls3075 🔔🔚
@@pauls3075 idiot
@@pauls3075 Yes and I will have a desert of your tears as you realise that the world can not run on hate and negativity alone. Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of your mum telling you to get out her basement and live on your own.
@@taefravis But wait I cant make it on my own I need my mum to look after me.... hahaha you tell yourself whatever you need to get you through the day, I dont need to work anymore because of schmucks like you.
brilliant
That’s beautiful
This is fantastic and a bigger version of what I have seen at Everything Electric North. It is something that is needed in all the car parks for places cars will be parked for a few hours.
Please 3ti do more of these, much more ....
I looked at the demo version last year at Farnborough, It good to see it being used for real.
Very cool!
Absolutely Brilliant!
How about at bus and courier depots? That’s where we really need a quick roll out.
Excellent idea and no app!
I would like that thing installed in my garden :)
I'd like a garden big enough to put it in!
@@FFVoyager 😆
@@FFVoyager And enough friends and family to come over in 12 cars! And a barbecue big enough to feed them! By the swimming pool!
@@FFVoyager Ha ha! All the best to your wish :)
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Agree... Sharing is the way :)
We’re doing this on Ashford Borough Council 😁
This has to be the way to go for many sites! Very clever design, and installed in 6 hours!
Great idea, would love to see these popping up everywhere! 👍🏻 I do hope it’s screwed down well though! 😆
Fun to see my EV in the parking lot!
Great innovative design and easy installation
What an inspiring video. This is the future. Well done 3ti!
Shade over the parking lots alone improves energy efficiency and reduces toxic things coming out of car's interior under direct sunlight
Nice, this is awesome! Love to see them everywhere! I've been saying for years, we need Level 2 charging everywhere (here in the US) but it seems like everyone is focusing on DCFC, which is a shame.
I'm in Wellingborough, we have 4 EV chargers at Tesco, another 5 in the indoor shopping centre car park and now we have two streets with on street chargers .installed
Around 20 chargers dotted around my nearest town, most in 2's and 3's placed in car parks.
I loved that phrase, "Charge where you stop - don't stop to charge"...
Brilliant...! 😎
Brilliant 👍 Should be made mandatory for any car park 🧐
Railway station car parks! Vehicles are usually left there for most of the day, and the owners are charged quite a lot of money. Why not provide solar charging without a battery, just straight from the solar panels through a suitable regulator and shared between all the vehicles present that can use it? Where a battery is installed, its depreciation is probably the biggest running cost of the station (maybe in some places keeping the solar panels clean is the biggest cost; it depends on the diet and habits of the local avian population).
@@cedriclynch indeed, just one of many places - there was a bunch of covered areas going up in a park and ride in St Ives in Cambs but the process looked slow and painful - this "drop and go" is what's needed as all the assembly can be done off-site and then they just need a spark to hook up to the grid if needed - the problem with trying to use the PV directly is still the intermittent nature of output - EV charging is quite a finicky process with a minimum charge current of 6A @ 240V (1440W) on single phase so having the grid to supplement makes sense where it's possible. Battery storage doesn't make much sense due to the losses every time energy is moved around. As for cleaning, IME of having PV up for 10+ years now, it doesn't bother me as the gains are marginal at best for the effort needed to get up there and clean - these could easily be folded down for cleaning I guess so it's not a massive overhead...no mention of rough costs for one of these 12 bay jobbies as usual 🤔
@@Umski I have seen the system in St. Ives. It is taking months or even years, and the area with the solar panels is cordoned off until the system is completed.
Great episode, lovely to see more things about infrastructure.
Workplace charging is definitely the way to go to put sunlight directly into cars, especially for apartment dwellers who can't charge their cars while they're sleeping
06:14 AWESOME
We need much more of these
talk about a no brainer, that's win-win for everyone
Neat setup should be many more of those
I agree with a lot of the comments about this solution and the installation time ws impressive. How long was the preparation time, getting the cables laid and the car park resurfaced and painted?
However long you need. Also foundations, so the thing doesn't fall over the next time it gets windy. Other solutions are available that can be "just" plonked down, but they take more area above ground, and don't necessarily have a solar canopy. This is all nice, but there are other ways of doing things, too.
Superb ! I have been telling people for decades that parking lots should install solar. They shade the car from the sun and charge while you shop. I wish this would catch on in the USA but there are too many troglodytes driving SUVs ! Thank you for the years of productive rants !!
Who is paying for this? How many parking spaces were lost for this installation? Is it free standing without the need to be connected to the mains? How much power does it actually make and how many cars can it charge in a day?
"but there are too many troglodytes driving SUVs" - the dumbest thing being - if the entire lot were covered with solar canopies, even if they're driving an F150 with the wide arse and 5th wheel, they could STILL benefit from the shade the solar panels provide! OK, they might block up 4 bays with their 12 litre behemoth... but they're still benefiting! And maybe seeing a bunch of cars nearby getting cheap "fuel" might make them wonder...
@@dikkybee4003 To answer your questions contained in your little rant.
1) Who is paying for this! - The business owner will pay for it just like they pay for everything else such as expansion or renovating their shop etc and they recoup the cost through usage of the product - business 101 DUH!
2) How many car parking spaces are lost to this? - NONE as there is still a carpark space, just has an EV charger at it. In time there will soon be hardly any ICE vehicles on the roads so seeing as EVs are still vehicles they will need to park as will ICE and the fact that some spaces or all will have charges means no spaces lost - DUH!
3) Is it free standing without need for mains connected? - You did not pay attention and instead just rushed to troll. This particular charger is mains powered but the rest will have a storage battery that will be powered by the solar and any times where extra energy is needed it will be provided by the grid as it is also mains connected. This is not an issue as in both cases the fact that solar is present means that less energy is needed from the grid and when the site is not being used much that energy produced can be sen back to the grid making it very efficient - DUH!
4) How much power does it make? Once again you did not pay attention did you? It can charge up to 22Kw per charger so you do the math?
5) How many cars can it charge per day? That depends on factors such as how long an EV driver spends there charging as this is not a fast charger site where throughput is important. This is a slow site where people spend an hour our more doing other things like work etc - DUH!
Now please stop your ranting!
Great idea to prefabricate. Presumably there is also a cost saving over traditional construction on site.
No savings due to just being built somewhere else, Labour cost and materials the same.
Significant cost savings just by being mass produced in a factory somewhere else. Skilled labor on a random site out in the field costs money.
@@dikkybee4003 You've obviously got no experience of site work.
@@dikkybee4003 Actually there are a lot of cost savings to being built in a factory using mass production techniques.
This is well proven.
@@dikkybee4003 so the answers was yes
Their are leaking tanks everywhere. There's a spot down the road where there used to be a Chevron Fuel station. They've been working on remediating that site for 25+ years.
That's a great concept!
Agree 100% We need much more of this. Both on street and at shopping centres, public carparks and places of work. But please can we have solar canopies over rapid chargers too? I think the only one I've seen is at Gridserves chargers at Cornwall Services. It would keep us dry/shadded and provide some of the power. Also can someone ask why they don't put solar panels above the grid battery storage installations? Wouldn't it shade the battery containers and add to the solar power collected without using extra land?
Sounds like a great step forward - prefab makes a lot of sense to minimise disruption to areas like this. Did I miss the part where they discuss how long it took to get the wiring to that point on the carpark? That must take a bit of time and planning. Also, love the lack of app - making it payable by debit/credit card is fantastic.
This is brilliant! 😁
How long to "install" a 12-vehicle petrol/diesel station? 😊 Very impressive piece of kit
About the same. There are shipping-container-sized tank/pump combinations that you can more or less plonk down and attach to mains power. Two pumps, typically. Not really a place to park as well, like this. At least you don't have to dig up the leaking tanks and the now toxic soil when you remove it. Urban dinosaur juice stations in Norway are being redeveloped for something else these days, and you had better have some money set aside for what awaits you below ground if you are involved in a project like that!
Massive fan of this type of system. And given the university's location they will not need 000's of chargers so a few of these dotted about with unsmart solar canopies everywhere else is going to be the sweet spot.
Hope to see exactly these at other long dwell locations. Theme parks, train station car parks etc where they are absolutely perfect fit.
This has to be the way forward!
Awesome!
This is the only way to scale ev charging. 2 installations a day an a factory behind where things can be produced at scale.
If we are really serious at ev transition, this is the way
Now we're talking! I'm not sure why this isn't the norm... every place where people do something (eg shopping, gym, movies etc) should have these.
At dedicated EV charging stations they also need something for people to do while charging, eg coffee shop & internet cafe etc.
I would imagine their module approach could mean they are priority dropped into areas where there is something to do?
Imagine if you ran a footfall business such as a roadside cafe and you could slap in a honey pot like this to drew and detain people for well over an hour etc
Campsites, hotels, even a staff benefit at workplaces :):)
@@MsDmcclymont Absolutely! Otoh, many recharge stations don't include "things to do" whilst recharging, which I think is a lost opportunity.
In France they changed the law to make car parking areas to be covered in solar panels and the EU look at it to make it an EU wide thing
Makes sense. But why not add more panels over the other parking space as that will add power and shade for the other cars.
That's not actually that easy, as the grid keep tight control of the amount of solar in a given area. If the local district network operator (DNO) calculates there's not enough usage for the local area, then they'll charge heavily for network modifications, making such plans kinda pointless.
@@johnnodge4327presume they could deliver a containerised battery to pop down for solar store?
Thank you.
Well done University of Surrey - good to be a market leader all other uni's should follow suit - Come on University of Derby you've the space and infrastructure - get one in !!
Brilliant, we had solar installed over our car park at work, it took weeks! Even worse it has no EV charging. No doubt we'll have closures coming up for that...
Brilliant. An yes we need to lobby Labour to change the planning laws so all car parks have to have solar panels installed.
Id be interested to see any preparation works going on.
Dont get me wrong, it is really good, but something installed as quickly as this was is only possible with meticulous planning.
I can see that ducting would only need to be run to one end of the canopy but there must've been groundworks for the footings at each of the uprights that hold it all in place.
Agreed. Additionally, I was interested in how much preparation their local grid needed for this.
However from the clips and B Roll it showed of it getting lowered down and people walking past (1:52) it appears as though as far as footings go it's simply large thick plates bolted down to the ground with this bolted down onto those plates?
Of course there must be channels too for the wiring but I'd be interested to find out if it just a case of bolting it down to a giant plate that is itself bolted down or if there are some proper manufactured footings under there besides just a large lump of concrete they just drilled into.
At the very start pre-installed cables can be seen. These tails have been run in conduits to a nearby kiosk where Robert turns the system on.
The blue columns will be sitting above their own concrete slab which will have had steel threaded studs cast-in place. (The studs will match holes in the bases of the blue columns.)
The concrete slabs will have had the cable conduits put in place before pouring.
Trenches will have been dug to lay the conduits in place.
The trenches were then backfilled.
The carpark was then resurfaced and had new markings applied.
Finally, the fun part.
A lorry turned up and plonked a solar charging system in place in just over three hours.
(Very impressive lorry manoeuvring. I liked that)
Superb, this is one of the places where we should be installing solar panels, not only to charge vehicles but to provide electricity to local businesses and homes. We don’t need to be covering valuable food producing farmland with “solar farms” or spoiling our countryside with miles of pylons, produce power locally and use it locally.
“Valuable food producing farmland”?!! Do you know any farmers? Do you think if they got paid anything other than the pittance they get for producing our food that they would choose to give land over to solar?
Most solar and onshore wind is installed on fairly unproductive land, renewables make this land much more productive. A UK study concluded that only 3% of land, all classed as unproductive, would be required to provide 225TWh of electricity to the UK, which when coupled with offshore wind would satisfy the entire UK electrical energy need. 3% of land is about as much as used by golf courses in the UK for recreation.
Mixing solar with agriculture can actually be beneficial. Panels can provide shade for certain types of crops and also help with water retention during dry years. You can also use the same land for grazing. Doesn't have to be either/or.
One of the large Solar Farms that I know of is on land that was dying from over use with monocropping. The land is starting to recover and will be fully usable again in some 30 years. For now the crop is Electricity.
These are compulsory in any carpark in France over a certain number of bays. Keeps car cool in summer, dry in winter.
literally a pop-up charger that can pop-up anywhere!
Great video Robert! Completely agree with your point about charging while you do something else
Hi Robert , great to see car chargers backed with solar energy in ideal location. One hell of a car port. We are at the moment just running one EV in a house with four vehicle. At the moment we EV change 95% of the time at home which makes economical sense. The question is , what is legality of someone parks ice vehicle on a EV charging bay, stopping EV being charged. Keep up the good & enjoyable work.
All the supermarkets have to jump onto this. They always have been interested in selling cheaper energy for cars, (petrol), so why not move into electricity. An optimal time to charge your vehicle is when you go and do your weekly, fortnightly shop. Inter supermarket competition should hopefully keep prices competitive and we can then say goodbye to the 80p/kWhr rip offs elsewhere. One can imagine large solar roofs over large car parks that are able to draw in and return energy to the grid thereby negating the need for any battery capacity. Shoppers stay dry under the roof. Just seems so obvious.
My motto when it comes to charging is "I don't wait while I charge, I charge while I wait!".
This would go well in country towns in Australia, where people drive through to get to there destinations.
I have been enjoyed, so thank you for sharing.
There is one of these installed at my local sports centre. It's very easy to use but I seem to be the only person ever using it!
"if you're not covering parking lots in solar panels, you're an utter disgrace to the human race"
Well said.
2:29 Nothing magic with dynamic load sharing, it is part of the standard.
The charging protocol can dynamically change the charge current from 6 to 32A in 1 amp steps. So you can charge 15 cars at once with a 22kW grid connection...
I`m using electric cars for over 7 years now and i totally agree that the need for easy accesable AC chargers is way more important than having DC fast chargers in urban regions (which are always way to expensive to daily charge your EV). Make it AC, make it solar assisted and make it less expensive...thats the way I wanna see this in the future.
really interesting project, thanks for showing this.
I just thought... this is basicly 42 Panels, right? So some cars are silver/gray or other other light colors. Would bifacial panels would benefit from this and how much could be improved, if they just paint the floore in a light color. Ok, maybe the painting is a bit too expensive.
Also yes, parking should have solar roofs, like truck stops etc. Here in germany we starting to have EV trucks, so that could be usefull and as he says - it's space that is already used, so why not use it more and prevent the space from collecting heat by covering it. Even for non-ev's, this should be beneficial, as they then need less A/C power at startup to cool down the inside of the cars.
Perfect. Thought about this solution many moons ago. One further improvement (though more intrusive initially), would be road-mounted, cable-free induction-charging).