Solar panels in panoramic roof shade?

[TerminatorX5]

I've had two solar panels hard wired into the cigarete light sockets in the cargo area, and they were stuck to the rear small windows on either side of the car. Granted, they were mounted vertical, and behind the "cold weather package" tint, so the power output was not at its peak, but it was doing OK...

I do however want to have them mounted on the sunshade of the panoramic roof of my new 4.8iS, as the sunshade is automatic, there is a rear third of the roof glass that is only tilting and not going back into the roof liner...

I was wondering if stripping the panel from the plastic shroud would make it thin enough to permanently "reside on the rear half of the sunshade (or, perhaps, the front half?) Wiring would be a nightmare, as one would have to accomodate for the moving parts...

I measured the output voltage of one panel in full unobstructed summer Virginia sun under roughly 90 degrees angle to the sun at about 20V DC... I did not measure the output amperage, but I think these panels are rated at just 2 watts of power, so the amperage would be tiny...


Any opinions???

[SlickGT1]

What do you plan to do with this? You want to keep charging something while parked?

And I personally would not want to screw around with the pano roof parts until something breaks.

[bagpype]

[TerminatorX5]

i was hoping to keep battery topped up, and to be honest, there is no better place in the car than the sunroof...

i probably will not engage in this project, but i thought someone might have had the expertise already...

I've heard Audi has it as an option... is it true?

[SlickGT1]

New rav4 has it. It charges battery, and vents the sunroof when hot.

[brokenbmx06]

Several of the Auto A8's have had this as an option. I believe the Prius even uses it to run the fans in the car in an effort to pull out some of the hot air when it gets a little warm outside. I don't have an X yet but would it make sense to possibly put them on a rear cargo cover of sorts?

[TerminatorX5]

oh... Rav4... i am already drooling... It always amazed me, how fast the koreans or japanese can retool their factory to act on the new high end car designs, or stolen designs... and takes the bavarians forever and a day just to get some things done... i understand, that everything has to be integrated, but sometimes it is getting to the level of absurd, when you pull a light bulb in the front of the car, and the bumper in the rear falls off...

I bet, if BMW had the solar panels, they would have integrated it so it would feed the rain sensor, so it would stay on all the times, and activate windows, sunroof even when the car is off, it would also monitor the battery voltage and do some other neat tricks... but, that development will take 10 years to accomplish... hahaha

[SlickGT1]

Lol. So so true.

[TwinTurboGTR]

Yea I have the solar Moonroof option on my Audi A6. It just powers an Aux fan to ventilate the inside cabin when the temperature reaches over 90*. There are two sensors, one inside the cabin and one outside.

For you to use it to keep a battery topped up, i dont see as beneficial. Just too much work imho. I think the wiring would be too complex and a nightmare to rig up to the pano roof.