Comments on: Solar Charging Stations by Toyota

By: Gene

Gene — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:04:35 +0000

This is an entertaining idea, but how does one get the vehicle charged if you need to use it during the day? That only leaves the evening and night hours … when it’s dark. Of course, one could build batteries into the system, but that seems like an oxymoron: charge batteries during the day (when and if the sun is out) so that in the evening you can recharge the vehicle batteries from the fixed battery bank. And that would also increase the cost substantially, as well as require anyone with one of these systems to either buy high-end metal hydrid or other “dry” batteries, or to use traditional “wet” batteries containing sulfuric acid-based electrolyte solution and lead plates. Most people seem to freak out when they find out that household bleach is a hazardous material, so it’s hard to imagine they will welcome the idea of big batteries in their home, plus the idea of having a monitoring system in place for hydrogen gas that lead-acid batteries can produce …

Plus, as others have noted, it still leaves a lot to be desired for the MANY communities in which PV solar does not work well (those with large percentages of cloudy days or rain, those far north where the solar panel would have to be adjusted seasonally to optimize capture & conversion, etc.). Wind would be the same challenge as some of the best commercial wind turbines only attain their nameplate capacity about 25% of the time. Below that, electric generation drops very rapidly.

By: gmail

gmail — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:19:35 +0000

Well anything is better than nothing, but I would rather see Toyota putting the money towards a fully electric car.

By: clare jane mcvety

clare jane mcvety — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:14:14 +0000

I think this is a great idea for electric cars. If you’re on the move and you’ve got panels on your roof and the sun is shining down on them, so it is charging the battery.

I’ve also had an idea for a wind powered recharger for a car which is good for the environment and economical too. It is a fan placed under the bonnet of the car and it re-charges a battery while on the move.

What do you all think?

By: Dan Greene

Dan Greene — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:31:43 +0000

I can see another BetaMax / VHS or BlueRay / HD kinda thing happening here.
Somebody should create a standard “plug” or whatever, before we get to the stage where there is a big fight over which system is best and some poor people haven’t got the standard fitting and can no longer charge!
Or am I just being naive?

By: russ

russ — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:21:40 +0000

The few thousand is only the Toyota portion of the unit – the tip of the iceberg! Probably not even covering the batteries required.

Don’t forget to add the cost of the panels, inverter, installation etc. The it all comes to what? 20,000 – maybe 30,000 or more.

There ain’t no free lunch!

By: Jos Conil

Jos Conil — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:54:01 +0000

Really a laudable initiative by a major auto company. But more details are needed to judge the effectiveness of these charging stations in urban areas with limitations in sunshine.

A more effective approach would be to connect the charging station to a larger green power source – can be wind, solar, concentrated solar power towers or bio mass based. The in-site solar panels will be like a back up for discrepancies in the power from these sources.

By: Francisco A Roque

Francisco A Roque — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:23:50 +0000

It appears that only the Japanese engineers are able to think, I hope the ones employed by Detroit may take notes and start thinking about what not only America, but the whole world needs, in order to free ourselves from the oil cartels, that although they pushed the economy to almost total collapse, continue to push it everyday, regardless of so much unemployment.