I wonder? (solar panels eventually a requirement?)

[john1000uk]

I wonder if we will reach a point where ownership of a EV will be dependent on having solar panels on your home to charge it and or help support the grid.

 

[Everest]

You need a lot of panels to charge an EV. We do, but it's still only viable for 8 months a year in the UK.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

I wonder if we will reach a point where ownership of a EV will be dependent on having solar panels on your home to charge it and or help support the grid.

I'd say not.

 

[Pete G]

We live on an off grid property. We have 10 kilowatts of solar panels and a 14.4kWh home battery bank.
We charge our ZS EV at home all the time.
Where we live in Tasmania it can be very cloudy in winter and rains a lot. So there are some days when no solar input happens at all.
Fortunately we are retired and only go to town once or twice a week. Which is a 78 kilometre round trip. The ZS can do the trip 3 times max before flattening the battery.
So far we have only ever plugged in about 10 times in town over the last 2 years.
For an on grid house solar panels still make sense as they would cut the power bills down a lot.

 

[Ian Key]

I think there's more chance that all commercial buildings will be forced, as part of their planning requirements, will have to have solar panels that feed the grid and preexisting buildings to have them fitted retrospectively.

 

[Bam Bam]

It is interesting that there is such a backlash against solar farms. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was largely astro-turfed by the fossil fuel industry)

The critics say "we should put panels on rooves and car parks and not fields."

I always ask if they have panels on their own roof and that seems to shut them up.

I don't think the government is likely to mandate anything so specific and fiddly.

However, it is possible that houses in the future will be asked to have a certain minimum energy efficiency rating or face some sort of penalty (like not being able to rent it out or something).

Solar panels, EV chargers and batteries might be offered as a way to get energy home ratings up and so it might be strongly incentivised at that point if my imaginary suggestion ever happened.

But some houses won't be suitable for solar - what if you are next to a large block of flats with no sun getting through? Or are surrounded by tall trees? Or you have a thatched roof?

 

[PeterHR2]

It is interesting that there is such a backlash against solar farms. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was largely astro-turfed by the fossil fuel industry)

The critics say "we should put panels on rooves and car parks and not fields."

I always ask if they have panels on their own roof and that seems to shut them up.

I don't think the government is likely to mandate anything so specific and fiddly.

However, it is possible that houses in the future will be asked to have a certain minimum energy efficiency rating or face some sort of penalty (like not being able to rent it out or something).

Solar panels, EV chargers and batteries might be offered as a way to get energy home ratings up and so it might be strongly incentivised at that point if my imaginary suggestion ever happened.

But some houses won't be suitable for solar - what if you are next to a large block of flats with no sun getting through? Or are surrounded by tall trees? Or you have a thatched roof?

Thatched roof with solar panels.
Of course, most won't be able to have them, especially if they are grade 1 or 2 listed. As to wooded environments, you can still use them; it's just the efficiency drops. And efficiency is improving. There is even research on 'solar' panels that work at night to generate electricity.

 

[Bam Bam]

Thatched roof with solar panels.
Of course, most won't be able to have them, especially if they are grade 1 or 2 listed. As to wooded environments, you can still use them; it's just the efficiency drops. And efficiency is improving. There is even research on 'solar' panels that work at night to generate electricity.

Sure, but it would be unreasonable to demand it for all. Particularly if they need some expensive solution which only captures a tiny amount of energy.

It would be necessary to add so many loopholes that it wouldn't be worth making a 'must have solar' rule in the first place.

 

[john1000uk]

It is interesting that there is such a backlash against solar farms. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was largely astro-turfed by the fossil fuel industry)

The critics say "we should put panels on rooves and car parks and not fields."

I always ask if they have panels on their own roof and that seems to shut them up.

I don't think the government is likely to mandate anything so specific and fiddly.

However, it is possible that houses in the future will be asked to have a certain minimum energy efficiency rating or face some sort of penalty (like not being able to rent it out or something).

Solar panels, EV chargers and batteries might be offered as a way to get energy home ratings up and so it might be strongly incentivised at that point if my imaginary suggestion ever happened.

But some houses won't be suitable for solar - what if you are next to a large block of flats with no sun getting through? Or are surrounded by tall trees? Or you have a thatched roof?

Just a thought that we might get to a tipping point where we need to put energy into the grid and perhaps if you can do so you will get some sort of preferential treatment? when to comes to owning an ev rather than a hybrid.

 

[German Paddy]

I have a very black and white opinion on Hybrid cars. There are the worst of both worlds.
When you are driving on ICE, you carry the electric motor and battery as additional weight. When you are driving electric, you carry ICE as additional weight. How is this a good solution?

 

[john1000uk]

Its certainly a compromise! But with phev does hopefully give us some cleaner air around town.

 

[GrahamB]

Personally I think putting solar panels over car parks is more sensible than covering our fields. I see the following benefits;
Keeping cars underneath cool in the summer,
Protecting cars from the worst of winter weather,
If tiled with local batteries they could provided local (ish) EV charging or localised grid support,
Before anyone asks, I have two solar arrays, one Powerwall, two EV's and two motorcycles.

 

[OzricEV]

Not so much a use in the UK, but I can see irrigation channels and man made rivers being required to be covered by something like solar panels as water scarcity increases in areas.

 

[GaryMG4]

I'd have thought V2G would be a better mandated idea. Come home a plug in, let the grid use the energy in your battery to help with early evening peak loads, then replace the energy (and recharge) overnight when the wind turbines are still turning rather than turn them off to balance the grid. Solar is only useful if you can use it immediately (or have battery capacity to store it).

 

[john1000uk]

I'd have thought V2G would be a better mandated idea. Come home a plug in, let the grid use the energy in your battery to help with early evening peak loads, then replace the energy (and recharge) overnight when the wind turbines are still turning rather than turn them off to balance the grid. Solar is only useful if you can use it immediately (or have battery capacity to store it).

Like it, what a good idea.

Yes I wouldn't mind a car port or garage or similar with a couple of kilowatt solar just to trickle a bit into the battery. I do wonder how many charges the sockets will stand before wearing out? I seem to remember Bjorn Nyland? on YouTube having issues with a Renault charge port? on the car.

 

[Everest]

Yes I wouldn't mind a car port or garage or similar with a couple of kilowatt solar just to trickle a bit into the battery.

Sadly not so simple.. as the min charge rate for type 2 AC charging is 6A - and you'll need a battery buffer for when clouds pass over