The BMW solar carport has been a fantastic idea that saw a lot of traction when images of it were first teased out maybe two years ago. It promised to be a stylish alternative to solar PV, a stand alone system that covered your car, could charge your electric vehicle and, one would assume, could also feed renewable energy in to your home when your car was not plugged in. Solar Carports are nothing new, but until BMW came along they were pretty uninspiring, designed purely to be functional rather than architecturally interesting.
From the press release, “As part of the expansion of its 360° ELECTRIC portfolio for BMW i Home and Public Charging Services, BMW South Africa today unveiled its first solar carport that will be rolled out locally from July 2016. The BMW i solar carport supplies an average of 3,6kW of solar power straight to the BMW i Wallbox, which is used to show a live readout of how much power is being generated by the sun and charge electric and plug-in hybrid BMW models.”
Pretty excited to hear that these are actually going in to use, will try and stay updated as the program unfolds.
Read the full, official press release from BMW Group.
Image BMW Press Release
