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I want to make a small solar car capable of going up to 25mph. Using 4 sunpower flexible panels 170w each 30vmp and 5.84 imp. will a pair of Victron BlueSolar MPPT 100/20 in a 2s2p arrangement work? can it power the car directly without needing a battery? Ideally I'd like to power the car's hub motor first and then with any left over energy charge up the battery.
Hello, this concept has inspired solar car races across the desert, the problem has always been that DC motors (PM ones not universal brush)run at high voltages in sizes big enough to move a vehicle, the controllers also work on high voltages, usually 480vdc, so, the power supply must be able to supply at least half of that continuously to move anywhere and burst to 480 to achieve anything close to efficiency. feeding a DC motor of say 20kw @480vdc only 60v and 12a at best will likely result in the motor making some noise and warming up but not much else, it is possible to use that setup to somewhat charge a battery bank but it would need to be a complicated and expensive series parallel switched bank (parallel to charge, series to run). if you want to work from the panels back then here is what you can afford power wise with those panels, 680w rated assume 70% efficiency 480w (rounded up), you could power a 400w ebike hub motor as long as the sun shines, that being said the "car" had best weigh no more than a push bike and 25mph is likely a stretch. now if you wanted to charge up a battery then you have more options, though it becomes super expensive. hope this helps
