Archive:000/Rooftop solar/gas stations
A gas station roof is potentially a good place to put solar panels.
Viability
In peak sunlight, how long would it take to provide a full charge:
(calculation loading)
Caveats: - Might take longer due to some minor energy losses. Should li_ion.charge_discharge_efficiency be factored in?
- The more viable solar panels might be less efficient, which would also slow the charging. But the panels would be cheaper, so it might still make economic sense.
- Is a 0%-to-100% charge even a common customer use-case? Maybe solar gas station rooftops could be mostly just for top-ups, which would be fine if they were commonplace.
Design challanges
- Gasoline pumps are high traffic areas, so you wouldn't want a car to charge right in front of them. You could probably make room for a charging station 10 to 20 meters away. Some extra wires would be necessary. They could either go above ground (beware of interfering with tall trucks) or below ground (probably a lot of initial cost).
- Gas station roofs also contain anti-fire systems designed to put out a gasoline fire in the rare case it happens. The solar wiring has to not interfere with that. This makes the engineering a bit more complex, but still manageable.
Marketing challanges
Daytime-only charging might be a tough sell now, but less so if it becomes a social norm. One way or another, the customer would have to pay a premium for nighttime charging (due to costs of energy storage) unless the grid has abundant amounts of other baseload power sources.
External links
Examples: