[TShaw]

My house has a slate roof so whole home panels are not an option. I have a detached garage with standard shingle roofing and it’s own separate power meter and panel.
Wondering if I could have sufficient panels and battery installed to power my 48amp charger. Or if it would even be worth the cost?
Total noob here to EVs and solar.

 

[208]

You would need 11 KW worth of solar minimum to power such a setup. Wall box is making an EVSE that will prioritize solar over grid power that will work nicely for such a setup. Going this route is certainly expensive, but in the long run I think worth it.

 

[RickKeen]

The two benefits of charging a big battery in a vehicle directly with solar is you can omit the big costs of needing other storage batteries or a connection back to the grid to bank the electricity.

But direct solar charging won't be possible if you drive your truck to work every day and the truck is not present when the sun is shinning. In that case, your solar installation will not be taking advantage of the efficiencies of storing the energy directly into your vehicle. It will just be a solar electricity setup independent of the truck.

From a financial point of view, it depends on the price of electricity, the panels, how much sun exposure you have, and if you can charge the vehicle directly.

If you pay a lot for electricity and you can build a direct-charging solar electric system (with no batteries and no grid connection) in a sunny place, on a rooftop or land you already own that is otherwise unused, you might get a 5 year payback.

You can typically get 10 year or less doubling of your money by just putting that money in the stock market.

If you live in a cloudy place, have no good place to put the panels, already have cheap electricity, and need to add some other expensive means of storing the electricity besides the vehicle, the resulting 20+ year payback won't be financially worth it.

 

[Leaf to Lightning : )]

to effectively charge a huge battery, with solar, is not as simple as just 'letting' it charge from the sun - it's way more complicated than that.

you need CONSTANT 120v or 240v power from the solar panels. That's almost impossible because the sun is not hitting every panel every minute of every hour for a length of time that you need to charge. Your EVSE charge unit will not operate without constant power.
you then need a huge BATTERY BANK to 'smooth out' the difference between the incoming solar power and the output to the truck's EVSE. That battery bank will be costly.
you'll need a very SIZEABLE inverter to handle the amperage your truck's EVSE needs to charge the truck. These are expensive, large, and require a lot of heavy wiring.

it's not simple. Solar is not simple. Not to say it's not possible, but it's not the easy utopia that we might assume.

 

[RickKeen]

to effectively charge a huge battery, with solar, is not as simple as just 'letting' it charge from the sun - it's way more complicated than that.
...
it's not simple. Solar is not simple. Not to say it's not possible, but it's not the easy utopia that we might assume.

Correct - you will need a smart charger in the truck that dynamically adjusts to the available current from the solar panels while also providing for care of the thermal management and charge level of the batteries, etc. Not sure this is built into the F150 Lightning yet.

 

[208]

to effectively charge a huge battery, with solar, is not as simple as just 'letting' it charge from the sun - it's way more complicated than that.

you need CONSTANT 120v or 240v power from the solar panels. That's almost impossible because the sun is not hitting every panel every minute of every hour for a length of time that you need to charge. Your EVSE charge unit will not operate without constant power.
you then need a huge BATTERY BANK to 'smooth out' the difference between the incoming solar power and the output to the truck's EVSE. That battery bank will be costly.
you'll need a very SIZEABLE inverter to handle the amperage your truck's EVSE needs to charge the truck. These are expensive, large, and require a lot of heavy wiring.

it's not simple. Solar is not simple. Not to say it's not possible, but it's not the easy utopia that we might assume.

This is actually pretty dated information. There are a number of systems coming online that greatly simplify this process. Sunpower, Wallbox, SMA and Solaredge are all offering systems that can offer solar charging or grid-tied solar biased EVSEs. No, it is not cheap nor is it simple, but it is becoming much more plug and Play than it used to be.

I personally charge my EV from 100% solar on one of my properties.

 

[208]

Addendum

I am a solar system designer/installer. I work more on the design side these days, as it is easier on my old broken body.

I specialize in non cookie-cutter designs. The ubiquitous California grid-tied system is super simple and, well, inflexible. Not much they can do outside of their basic design.

Off-grid, hydro/wind hybrid systems and gravity based energy storage are much more interesting.

If anyone is serious about a solar design, such as one that can charge your EV (with or without storage batteries) , I can help.

 

[Leaf to Lightning : )]

true, but the initial 'great idea' that most new to solar, or new to EVs, have, is that it is already 'plug n play', although it's not nearly that easy. Many in the RVing world have run into the same eventual realization - solar tends to be an easy conversation, a 'save all' type discussion, but it's rarely that easy, or that inexpensive - especially when you get into trying to power a roof air conditioner. The massive amount of room needed for that type of solar output is not supported by most, if not any, RVs. They are just not large enough, roof wise, to have enough panels to do that.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but a semblance of reality goes a long way to just keeping things simple. Some will already have substantial solar investments, so an 'upgrade' to charge an EV might be in the cards, but to build out something 'just for' an EV, probably not.

 

[ChasingCoral]

to effectively charge a huge battery, with solar, is not as simple as just 'letting' it charge from the sun - it's way more complicated than that.

you need CONSTANT 120v or 240v power from the solar panels. That's almost impossible because the sun is not hitting every panel every minute of every hour for a length of time that you need to charge. Your EVSE charge unit will not operate without constant power.
you then need a huge BATTERY BANK to 'smooth out' the difference between the incoming solar power and the output to the truck's EVSE. That battery bank will be costly.
you'll need a very SIZEABLE inverter to handle the amperage your truck's EVSE needs to charge the truck. These are expensive, large, and require a lot of heavy wiring.

it's not simple. Solar is not simple. Not to say it's not possible, but it's not the easy utopia that we might assume.

You seem to be assuming the OP is looking for a system that is grid-independent. A grid-tied system would be much easier.

 

[ChasingCoral]

My house has a slate roof so whole home panels are not an option. I have a detached garage with standard shingle roofing and it’s own separate power meter and panel.
Wondering if I could have sufficient panels and battery installed to power my 48amp charger. Or if it would even be worth the cost?
Total noob here to EVs and solar.

The first questions are:

• How big is your roof?
• What directions do the roof faces point?
• Is your roof shaded by the house, trees, or other structures?
• Will you charge the truck during the day when the solar is operating?
• Do you want this system to be independent of the grid or can it be connected to the grid?

You can use this hand tool to look at your roof and get an initial idea of how suitable it is for solar:

Project Sunroof

Enter a state, county, city, or zip code to see a solar estimate for the area, based on the amount of usable sunlight and roof space.

sunroof.withgoogle.com