Using an Electric Vehicle (EV) as a way of storing energy from solar panels offers several advantages. Firstly, it allows you to harness free energy from the sun, reducing your reliance on fossil fuels and lowering your carbon footprint. By charging your EV with solar energy, you can take advantage of the abundant and renewable power source right on your rooftop.
Our range of EV charging products work in harmony with your Solar power system and can be managed to optimise it most, when the sun is shining.
While selling excess solar energy back to the grid is an option, it may not always be financially viable for most utility customers. Typically, the tariffs offered by utility companies for feeding electricity back into the grid are lower than the retail rates customers pay for electricity. This makes the financial gains from selling back energy quite modest, making it more cost-effective to use the energy directly within your home or store it in your EV.
Add a Battery Energy Storage (BESS) unit for future use, including the ability to charge your EV overnight from Solar!
Read more about our BESS solutions here.
Add a Battery Energy Storage (BESS) unit for future use, including the ability to charge your EV overnight from Solar!
Read more about our BESS solutions here.
Looking ahead, Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technologies hold tremendous potential for powering your home using your EV.
This allows bi-directional energy flow between your EV and your grid connected home power, enabling your EV to not only draw energy but also supply excess energy back to your home and grid when needed.
This allows bi-directional energy flow between your EV and your grid connected home power, enabling your EV to not only draw energy but also supply excess energy back to your home and grid when needed.
This technology opens up opportunities to utilise your vehicle's battery as a backup power source during peak demand periods or emergencies, reducing strain on the grid and potentially providing cost savings by lowering your overall energy consumption.
In summary, using an EV to store energy from solar panels is a compelling proposition. It capitalises on the abundance of free solar energy, makes better financial sense compared to selling excess energy back to the grid, and hints at an exciting future where V2H and V2G technology could enable homeowners to power their houses with the stored energy in their EVs.
In summary, using an EV to store energy from solar panels is a compelling proposition. It capitalises on the abundance of free solar energy, makes better financial sense compared to selling excess energy back to the grid, and hints at an exciting future where V2H and V2G technology could enable homeowners to power their houses with the stored energy in their EVs.
For customers taking advantage of wholesale electricity pricing through providers such as Amber, you could potentially be PAID to charge your EV when wholesale prices can occasionally actually go negative. This typically occurs when there's excessive demand on the grid, such as during heatwaves. Wholesale pricing is not for everyone though and some due diligence is required to see if this is right for you. Read more at Amber.com.au
Image source: Clean Energy Reviews