This is a Fully Solar Powered Electric VW Bus

Brett Belan has been making absolutely fascinating solar electric vehicles over the years. Originally he started off making a solar-electric golf cart, but he decided that he wanted to take on an even bigger challenge for himself. The result of this is his VW bus that he converted into a camper which is able to be entirely powered off of nothing but the sun.

“Getting the bus was quite interesting. They still want four or five thousand dollars for these older buses, even with bad motors in them.” Fortunately for Brett, he knew that doing an electric vehicle conversion on a bus like this would mean that the original internal combustion engine wouldn’t be necessary, so he was able to get his bus for relatively cheap. “The solar power was just two hours a night after work chop-saw cutting aluminum (and) drilling until finally I was able to mount the cam and hinge (to) them... Then there's actuators that needed to be wired up so that it could tip up.”

“Having a charging station, so to speak, right with the vehicle obviously allows you to go far beyond where you would need to possibly use a charging station. So you can really get out into nature and stay there, because you have plenty of power to keep all your life support systems going while you're out there... It really just gives you the ability to get out beyond civilization a little bit and enjoy nature.”

The idea of using a giant solar array as the pop top of this project came pretty naturally to Brett. Brett saw that the need of having the array on an adjustable hinge for optimum efficiency suited the mechanics of a pop top perfectly. Its really the cherry on top of the ultimate solar camper.

“(It) has a window in the back, and you access it from the bottom there's a little ladder that you put in there. Me, my wife, and my two kids will sleep up there with plenty of room to spare. You can stand up so if you wanted to play some music off the back or have a little dinette set to hang out and have a coffee it's totally possible and it's really nice. It puts you up above your campsite or the creek or whatever you're parked next to.” Using the solar panel in ideal conditions, they’re able to add 50 miles to the battery in a single day.

One of the biggest challenges with this built was voltage incompatibility. There aren’t a lot of components to make a rig like this, so Brett had to get creative with his own custom solutions. What he ended up landing on is using voltage boosters on each panel to get them up to the required 144volts he needed to charge the battery. While there are losses with this workaround, Brett’s working on his own boost converters to use in the future that will be more efficient in this application.

In the dash, Brett is able to monitor all the required settings of his electrical system, including a voltage readout of each cell of his battery. This allows him to monitor battery health, and pinpoint exactly what cell of the array is bad if he experiences any issues. “If you take the voltage of your total battery bank, you don't know what's happening in between and sometimes the battery can drop really low. We can't push a battery further than it wants to go, so when we see that one battery start dropping down to the ten nine volts we stop and do a little solar charging or plug in.”

Brett opted to use 12 volt golf cart batteries wired in series to power the bus. This high voltage setup is needed to run the electric engine that powers the bus while maintaining a wire gauge that is still manageable.

“I made my own wires by smashing some copper rod and making sure that each battery has a perfect torque connection... you really notice the difference. Each battery can contribute evenly and much more efficiently. I'll get about 80 amp hours per battery pulling anywhere from 100 to 300 amps...and that gives me my 50-mile range.” While 50 miles might not seem like a ton of range, it isn’t bad when considering he’s able to get it essentially for free from sunlight. If they ever need to recharge and the sun isn’t out, they’re able to use their level 2 charger or simply plug into any conventional 120v AC outlet.

One of the benefits of using an entirely electric vehicle as a camper is the amount of electricity to have at your disposal once to reach your campsite. “There's a lot of power here to do other things besides drive the vehicle. I mean, driving the vehicle takes so much more power than it does to run even an air conditioner.” This allows them to use all electric appliances like induction cooktops and space heaters instead of conventional solutions that normally run off of propane.

Since the bus didn’t originally come as a camper, the entire interior has been custom designed, mostly by Brett’s wife Kira. It has a simple sink, fridge, induction element, and plenty of seating for the whole family. The seats were originally in a Mercedes Sprinter, but they work well inside the bus, and even swivel to make the most of the otherwise small space.

Brett sees this bus as a two step project. The first phase was to build a bus that functioned within a very limited budget. This is why it has a relatively short 50 mile range when compared to other electric vehicles on the market. Now that he has a functioning prototype, Brett plans to outfit the bus with lithium batteries and solar awnings which will improve the range, weight and practicality of this already very impressive rig. With these new additions, the sky will be the limit.

Watch the full video here: