ebike charging off-grid using renewable sources

One of the interesting aspects of running an eBike is the extent to which you can eliminate fossilised fuel dependence out of your riding - as the folks at Shrinkfoot have identified, your EV power source does matter.  We get quite a few enquiries from people living offgrid, disconnected from electricity mains and running self-sufficiently with their own power generation. 

The bikes are well suited to being used in these kinds of settings, but we need to address some of the issues of equipment specification to make it clear for owners and prospective customers what sort of capacity is required. Of course, an EBike is going to have a larger footprint than a standard bicycle, but that footprint can still be minimised.

The Stealth Bomber has the largest battery capacity in the Stealth range, which requires at least the following:

1. 150Ah battery (provides enough juice for 1 charge);
2.  Minimum 1000 watt inverter to drive the bike charger;
   
3. Your choice of charging source for the 150Ah battery - can be either renewables or direct from grid through your home/business power outlets and a battery charger

In our case, since we're mainly using a Stealth Fighter as our preferred demonstrator, we've opted for a middle of the road, RV-style configuration that consists of the following:

1. 150Ah battery (see http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1822 for one option) ;
2. 1500w Charger/Inverter (see http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MI5260 for an example);
3. 120w Portable solar PV pack  (see http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZM9134 for an example)

Whilst there are nicely prepackaged RV style kits such as this, they do take up a fair bit of space. In our case, we wanted a bare-bones setup that minimised space requirements and could be transplanted readily between fleet vehicles. So, we opted for an alternate inverter/charger and portable PV as the main changes from this example prebuilt bundle. 

Other options that we considered on the way through this exercise were some of the products available from GoalZero, including their Yeti off-grid generator and panels (shown below). We'll be taking a closer look at that setup over the next few months.

This means that when we're attending ebike or sustainable living events, we're now power independent and have plenty of juice on hand for running a mobile office from our van, along with capacity to do a replenish charge in the event we drain the battery of one of our demonstrators. 

A setup like this provided us with ample power to recharge at the recent 2013 HunterEVPrize race between qualifying practice and race time. It also forms the basis of our mobile office for the work we do at Laughing Mind, providing us with a high level of flexibility for working anywhere, anytime.

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Yeti1250 Solar Generator Kit from GoalZero