Help with calculating what I need to charge an EV motorcycle

[oneballjaysocket]

Can someone give me some help with calculating what I'd need , as far as panels and battery size, to fully charge a motorcycle with a 10 kwh battery? It has twice the range that I need for my commute, so it won't always need a full charge. But I want to oversize a bit, because I can always find a use for extra electricity. Also, I work from 4 pm to 1 am, so the charging time could be during the first half of the day, from the panels, or after I get home at 1 am , off of battery(ies). It charges in two hours, the specs say.
I live in Ohio, and have good southern exposure.
Let me know if I can provide more relevant info.
Edited for more info:
I have a 6.5kw inverter with mppt charger that accepts utility or generator power, it puts out 48 v, and the manual says it can be used without batteries. It's a SunGold 6500 watt inverter

 

[400bird]

What happens when it's cloudy? Do you need to charge every day? Charge from grid or have a battery to store excess solar?

I'd go on NREL PVwatts and calculate how much solar you need to produce around 12kWh (allowing for efficiency losses in both the solar inverter and EV battery charger) in the middle of winter.

PVWatts

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations

pvwatts.nrel.gov

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Can someone give me some help with calculating what I'd need , as far as panels and battery size, to fully charge a motorcycle with a 10 kwh battery? It has twice the range that I need for my commute, so it won't always need a full charge. But I want to oversize a bit, because I can always find a use for extra electricity. Also, I work from 4 pm to 1 am, so the charging time could be during the first half of the day, from the panels, or after I get home at 1 am , off of battery(ies). It charges in two hours, the specs say.
I live in Ohio, and have good southern exposure.
Let me know if I can provide more relevant info.

Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, given that I'm a neophyte. But assuming you're riding daily, and you want to charge it with 10KWh daily (so you have that buffer), then you want a solar system that can produce 10KWh a day. Assuming that means winter and rain, I'd recommend:

Use PVWatts as an online tool. In PVWatts just give yourself the solar panels you might expect to buy, you can adjust them later from the results from the model running at your location with predicted weather. From the results, you should be able to figure out how many solar panels you're likely to need to get the 10KWh a day you want.

If you want to charge with batteries instead of getting enough panels to do the job every day (and unless you get a massive amount of panels you'll likely have days where you're not going to get that much power), then you have to plan on how much the batteries can hold from the days when you make a lot of extra sun, so that it can charge your ride on the days that don't have a lot of sun.

 

[BenQ]

Yeah, what those guys said! Basically PV watts will tell you that you get x amount of avg. sunlight per day in your area. Let’s pretend you get 5 hours of sunlight per day (highly unlikely but it’s a nice even number Then it’ll ask you how much kw you want to produce. Sounds like you want 10kw. So divide 10kw by 5 hours and you need to make 2kw per hour. So get yourself 2 kw of panels and 5 hrs of sunshine per day and a 5kw battery less inverter and go nuts!

 

[Doggydogworld]

Agree about PVWatts. It gives you output by month, which will vary considerably in Ohio. You can decide if it's worth it to pay for a lot of extra summer kWhs to have enough to charge your bike in December. PVWatts does not help much with day-to-day variation due to clouds, though. An array that produces 5 kWh/day on average in December might produce ~10 kWh on 16 days and near-zero the other 15.

Ideally the MPPT controller would charge your motorcycle battery directly and save the cost and inefficiency of a secondary battery and inverter. I don't know of any low-cost MPPTs which can do that, though, and hooking directly into an electric vehicle battery is a non-trivial DIY job.

The good news is you don't need a big secondary battery. Unless you want to be able to recharge through a multi-day cloudy spell, that is. But if you mainly plan to charge from dawn to 4pm on sunny days you can probably get buy with an old car battery.

 

[millsan1]

This will cover you

Complete Mobile Solar Kit 3000W Output | 5000W PV Input | 2,000W of Solar PV [Kit-E0010]

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

 

[Supervstech]

This will cover you

Complete Mobile Solar Kit 3000W Output | 5000W PV Input | 2,000W of Solar PV [Kit-E0010]

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

No, it won’t.
He says the bike has a 2 hour recharge time… that’s 5kW output. Unless the bike has provisions to reduce the charge rate, a 3kW inverter won’t produce it.
Also, odds are good the bike needs 240V to power the charger.

 

[Supervstech]

Can someone give me some help with calculating what I'd need , as far as panels and battery size, to fully charge a motorcycle with a 10 kwh battery? It has twice the range that I need for my commute, so it won't always need a full charge. But I want to oversize a bit, because I can always find a use for extra electricity. Also, I work from 4 pm to 1 am, so the charging time could be during the first half of the day, from the panels, or after I get home at 1 am , off of battery(ies). It charges in two hours, the specs say.
I live in Ohio, and have good southern exposure.
Let me know if I can provide more relevant info.

What are the specs of the charger? Voltage, and amperage?

 

[Aridom82]

I always recommend using the pvgs site
You put in your coordinates, orientation, system type, amount of panels, daily consumption, battery size, etc and it tells you what you will get.

JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission

Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS)

re.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Play around with it

 

[millsan1]

No, it won’t.
He says the bike has a 2 hour recharge time… that’s 5kW output. Unless the bike has provisions to reduce the charge rate, a 3kW inverter won’t produce it.
Also, odds are good the bike needs 240V to power the charger.

I read it as 2 hour charge time, for his half use of battery per day. So 2500 watts per hour. Of course if he means 2 hours from empty, then yes, this is wrong.

 

[Doggydogworld]

Also, odds are good the bike needs 240V to power the charger.

Most if not all e-motorcycles support Level 1 i.e. 120V charging at ~15A. That takes a lot longer than 2 hours, of course, but they naturally quote Level 2 (240V) or Level 3 (high voltage DC) charging times in their marketing materials. Zero's website has a page showing (somewhat optimistic) charging times for each level.

 

[oneballjaysocket]

What happens when it's cloudy? Do you need to charge every day? Charge from grid or have a battery to store excess solar?

I'd go on NREL PVwatts and calculate how much solar you need to produce around 12kWh (allowing for efficiency losses in both the solar inverter and EV battery charger) in the middle of winter.

PVWatts

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations

pvwatts.nrel.gov

Sorry, I should have provided more info. I have a 6500 watt inverter/ charger that accepts input from a generator or utility power, with priority that can be set, as far as what I put to use first. And it can be used without a battery I just found out

 

[oneballjaysocket]

What are the specs of the charger? Voltage, and amperage?

I don't know, I haven't bought the bike yet. I can find out

 

[oneballjaysocket]

Yeah, what those guys said! Basically PV watts will tell you that you get x amount of avg. sunlight per day in your area. Let’s pretend you get 5 hours of sunlight per day (highly unlikely but it’s a nice even number Then it’ll ask you how much kw you want to produce. Sounds like you want 10kw. So divide 10kw by 5 hours and you need to make 2kw per hour. So get yourself 2 kw of panels and 5 hrs of sunshine per day and a 5kw battery less inverter and go nuts!

Thank you, that helps. And this will just be summertime use

 

[oneballjaysocket]

Most if not all e-motorcycles support Level 1 i.e. 120V charging at ~15A. That takes a lot longer than 2 hours, of course, but they naturally quote Level 2 (240V) or Level 3 (high voltage DC) charging times in their marketing materials. Zero's website has a page showing (somewhat optimistic) charging times for each level.

I need to double check on charging time, it's the buell designed electric motorcycle. For highway use

 

[oneballjaysocket]

Most if not all e-motorcycles support Level 1 i.e. 120V charging at ~15A. That takes a lot longer than 2 hours, of course, but they naturally quote Level 2 (240V) or Level 3 (high voltage DC) charging times in their marketing materials. Zero's website has a page showing (somewhat optimistic) charging times for each level.

I need to double check on charging time, it's the buell designed electric motorcycle. For highway use

 

[oneballjaysocket]

I always recommend using the pvgs site
You put in your coordinates, orientation, system type, amount of panels, daily consumption, battery size, etc and it tells you what you will get.

JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission

Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS)

re.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Play around with it

Thank you, this will help out

 

[oneballjaysocket]

I read it as 2 hour charge time, for his half use of battery per day. So 2500 watts per hour. Of course if he means 2 hours from empty, then yes, this is wrong.

You're right, I don't think I'll drain the battery most days, going by the claimed range of the bike. It has twice the range I'll need, per day.

 

[oneballjaysocket]

What happens when it's cloudy? Do you need to charge every day? Charge from grid or have a battery to store excess solar?

I'd go on NREL PVwatts and calculate how much solar you need to produce around 12kWh (allowing for efficiency losses in both the solar inverter and EV battery charger) in the middle of winter.

PVWatts

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations

pvwatts.nrel.gov

Thank you, that'll help. It'll only be for summer time use, and I don't think I'll drain the battery more than 60% a day based on the advertised range versus my commute distance

 

[oneballjaysocket]

Agree about PVWatts. It gives you output by month, which will vary considerably in Ohio. You can decide if it's worth it to pay for a lot of extra summer kWhs to have enough to charge your bike in December. PVWatts does not help much with day-to-day variation due to clouds, though. An array that produces 5 kWh/day on average in December might produce ~10 kWh on 16 days and near-zero the other 15.

Ideally the MPPT controller would charge your motorcycle battery directly and save the cost and inefficiency of a secondary battery and inverter. I don't know of any low-cost MPPTs which can do that, though, and hooking directly into an electric vehicle battery is a non-trivial DIY job.

The good news is you don't need a big secondary battery. Unless you want to be able to recharge through a multi-day cloudy spell, that is. But if you mainly plan to charge from dawn to 4pm on sunny days you can probably get buy with an old car battery.

Thank you, I edited my post to include some relevant info. Summertime use only, and I already own a 6500 watt inverter with an mppt charger that works without a battery