Solar superchargers

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

That mostly assumes continuous use of the DC fast charger. When nobody's charging, the solar panels' output would either be wasted or go elsewhere. Flipped around, using batteries, which you mention (dismissively?) would enable capturing and storing a smaller solar array's output for later delivery to cars. It would take more complex calculations, including estimates of usage at a fast-charging site, to estimate how many solar panels and how much on-site storage would be needed to make a site more-or-less self-sufficient in energy needs. This would, of course, be a statistical analysis, and so would inevitably be off for days with heavy or light use, very sunny vs. very cloudy days, seasonally, etc.

All that said, I find it hard to believe that solar canopies at DC fast charging sites would be likely to provide enough energy to offset the use at that site, unless that use was very light. That's not to say that such installations are useless, though. If we as a society want to increase the use of solar power (as I believe we should), then the solar panels have to go somewhere, and atop canopies to help protect drivers from the elements when they charge their cars is one of many places they can go that will have minimal negative impacts. (Compared to cutting down a forest simply to install solar panels, for instance.)

Forget self-sufficiency. It's about saving money.

PV canopy + battery is a way to lower maximum power draw from the grid, lowering their demand charges.
It also has the advantage of being built-in backup power to keep the site running during outages without backup generators.. No so much to charge vehicles (although it can charge some), but to avoid the site going offline.

Also worth noting that in a lot of places people travel more during sunny summer weather, so additional solar generation during long days will help with some of the seasonal variation.

And, as you note, there are practical benefits to canopies.

 

[SVMike]

Forget self-sufficiency. It's about saving money.

PV canopy + battery is a way to lower maximum power draw from the grid, lowering their demand charges.
It also has the advantage of being built-in backup power to keep the site running during outages without backup generators.. No so much to charge vehicles (although it can charge some), but to avoid the site going offline.

Also worth noting that in a lot of places people travel more during sunny summer weather, so additional solar generation during long days will help with some of the seasonal variation.

And, as you note, there are practical benefits to canopies.

I agree that solar canopies are a good idea and should be fully used. But it is not close to realistic to think that they alone can power all the cars that will need to be charged.
Recently I was at the second Kettleman City charger location and almost all of the 56 chargers were in use. 100F in the shade, but there was no shade at all. It would take many acres of panels to charge all those cars. The other (original) Kettleman City location does have solar cover.
Tesla...get those chargers covered!

 

[Big Earl]

A solar canopy is better than no solar canopy. #keepitsimple

 

[RTPEV]

Just realized I basically repeated myself...I remembered posting that somewhere on TMC...well, it was right here in this thread! So never mind!

 

[RTPEV]

All the populous areas are AKGD. That's over half NG.

Power Profiler | US EPA

This tool allows users to enter in their zip code and compare their local air emission rates for electricity against the national average, as well as the air emission impact of your electricity use.

www.epa.gov

It'd be interesting to see a population-adjusted image.

Yeah, I certainly won't argue that point. But my comment was directed at the comment that the poster could not believe the numbers on the map for Alaska (assuming they were talking about the 109 MPG, not the 56 MPG of AKGD).

 

[kayak1]

Forget self-sufficiency. It's about saving money.

PV canopy + battery is a way to lower maximum power draw from the grid, lowering their demand charges.
It also has the advantage of being built-in backup power to keep the site running during outages without backup generators.. No so much to charge vehicles (although it can charge some), but to avoid the site going offline.

Also worth noting that in a lot of places people travel more during sunny summer weather, so additional solar generation during long days will help with some of the seasonal variation.

And, as you note, there are practical benefits to canopies.

The demand charges can be rather expensive.

NH has done some work to reduce demand charges for DCFC:

New Hampshire regulators approve new EV charging rates for Unitil, Liberty and cut demand charges in half

Advocates for electric vehicle infrastructure are split on whether the lower demand charge will help to expand public charging stations in the state.

www.utilitydive.com

I believe they have introduced bills to remove the demand charges for at least the next few years.

Removing the demand charges will make installing DCFC less of a gamble in terms of payback but will remove the incentive to install batteries to remove the demand spikes.