Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's
PV solar, EV vehicle stupidity in California
DougSpindler:
Last Saturday I drove my electric car to De Anza college which is in the heart of Silicon Valley in California. The college has 14 EV charging stations and acres upon acres of solar panels covering the parking lots.
Out of the 14 EV charging stations 8 were wrapped in plastic indicating they were broken and not useable. I followed the instruction on the charging stations to charge my EV car. Didn't work. Called the 800 tech support number, not open on weekends. Followed the instruction on the college's web site for charging.... doesn't work or outdated.
Then I noticed next to the EV car chargers several very large perminetly mounted diesel generators. Not sure I belive this person but apparently the diesel generators are used to charge the EV cars. Since they weren't running, the EV chargers do not work.
I was also told since solar is so unreliable in sunny California they have to use the diesel generators to power the college at times during the day when solar porduction is low.
As much as I like my EV, what a pain in the ass it is to get the thing charged even at places with EV chargers.
And how stupid is this.... We charge EV cars with diesl generators even when the solar pannels are producing surplus electriciy.
As a side note..... The college must have spent top dollar on their solar installation. They have large arays of panles which are of the tracking type. Very impressive.
This is ridicious.
edavid:
They are not conventional diesel generators, they are fancy micro-turbines. You can read about the system here:
https://us.sunpower.com/commercial-solar/case-studies/deanza-college/
metrologist:
Fun fact. I studied Fortran90 at DeAnza...
Marco:
--- Quote from: DougSpindler on April 23, 2018, 05:22:08 pm ---We charge EV cars with diesl generators even when the solar pannels are producing surplus electriciy.
--- End quote ---
They probably use solar first, generator when the heat is needed and grid for the rest (unless the generators can compete with the grid even without cogeneration, in which case they're probably run as much as possible).
--- Quote ---As a side note..... The college must have spent top dollar on their solar installation. They have large arays of panles which are of the tracking type. Very impressive.
--- End quote ---
With tracking solar will never be cost effective, it just takes too much material and maintenance. Not so much impressive, as expensive.
phil from seattle:
Well, if the "not reliable" comment was simply about the fact that the sun doesn't shine 24 hrs a day, then I find the use of the term "unreliable" to be very poorly applied. If it was used in the proper sense that the solar tracking panels fail even when the sun is shining is a problem of maintenance or perhaps design. I agree tracking is a failure in general but perhaps it was an experimental design to see how well tracking did.
Also, you use the phrase "I was told" or similar in several places to report what some unqualified stranger told you about the design/usage. Personally, I would take that with a large grain of salt and do a little additional research before condemning the whole thing to complete stupidity, mismanagement or worse.
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