Solar power to electric power

[daniel]

Hello fellow EV enthusiasts!  My name is Daniel and I attended part of the monthly meeting the other night.  Unfortunately I couldn't stay long so I was unable to address the audience, but I would like to check out some of the events next week (Earth week) to meet more of you and exchange ideas. 

I am a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia and I am learning about electric vehicles and photovoltaic systems as part of an independent learning contract.  More specifically, my focus of research is on the conversion of solar energy to electricity for charging vehicles.  How feasible is it to illuminate one's home as well as power a car in the Northwest?  What about a few cars?  How many PV panels am I looking at?  My goal, after graduating, is to open a business in Olympia or Seattle that relies on all-electric vehicles and solar panels.  But as you can probably tell, I have much to learn before I get too serious about this business venture. 

I would be very interested in meeting with some of you who charge your cars with solar-generated electricity so I can learn from people who are actually walking the talk.     

[Eletruk]

I have both, PV panels, and EVs. But my daily vehicle (Ford Ranger EV) uses 220V and my PV system is 110V so I can't directly charge the truck from the panels. However, the PV system can be grid tied, and the excess sold to the grid, and the the truck charges off the grid, essentially using the grid as a 110-220 converter (of sorts). However, I have directly charged my electric bike, and my 1991 Ford Festiva conversion from the PV system. I haven't really gotten as far as tracking actual power consumption or anything like that. It's on my list of future projects, to data log everything, but so far, I just pay the electric bill.
So far the truck averages about 350Wh/mile. And the PV system has 4 120W solar panels. So if we include system losses, I could expect about 1 mile charge per hour of sunlight, which is more than my daily commute of 4 miles. So theoretcally I am still energy positive on sunny days. What I don't know is what kind of power I get on overcast and rainy days. Of course on nice days (like today) I also can opt to walk or ride my bike, so I wouldn't even use the EV. So in the overall scheme of things, I think my 4 panel array provides electricity in excess of my daily useage, which would pretty much make my transportation carbon negative (I also signed up for 100% renewable electricity) but not my overall electricity usage. I would need a much bigger array for that (also on my list).