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Solar Energy
Home owners

The Perfect Combination: Solar Energy and E-Mobility

E-mobility

09/09/2020
The advantages of the electric car are many and varied - but rising energy prices are an argument that could count against the purchase of an electric car for some. However, those who charge their electric car with energy generated by their own photovoltaic system benefit twice over.

KEY POINTS AT A GLANCE

  • Electricity generated by a PV system allows electric cars to be charged in a cost effective and environmentally friendly manner.
  • With a PV system, an energy management system and a battery, the energy from the sun can be used 24 hours a day.
  • Charging your electric car with self-generated solar power increases your level of self-consumption. An outcome that’s both smart and cost effective.

There’s a perfect partner for e-mobility that helps you take advantage of its full potential: solar energy. That sounds more mundane than it is: the electric car is charged in a cost effective and environmentally friendly manner using photovoltaic energy. Smart solutions that complement each other perfectly, from the inverter to the wallbox, are already available. Every home owner with a PV system can produce the energy required for their own electric car.

Fronius has a vision of a world in which we use 100% renewable energy. E-mobility has a big role to play in turning this vision into reality. With a photovoltaic system, judicious energy management and an efficient battery, the sun not only shines during the day, but all the time, as the PV energy is stored or used with a wallbox to charge the electric car.

It’s not just your home that will be practically self-sufficient in terms of energy during the summer months, a significant part of the power required for your electric vehicle can also be produced from self-generated solar energy.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY OF GETTING THE PV SYSTEM TO PAY FOR ITSELF?

The message that we have to shake off our reliance on fossil fuels is gradually getting through, yet the most compelling reason for installing a photovoltaic system in one’s own home is frequently still one of economics. And the most important factor that makes a PV system more cost effective is to maximise the amount used for self-consumption. The objective is to save money and to reduce the amount of power fed into the grid. The feed-in tariffs in most countries are currently at relatively low levels. 

This is where the smart technology from Fronius helps. On the one hand it can be used to store PV energy, while on the other the electric car can be charged using surplus energy from your own PV system. The more energy from the PV system that is used, the more cost effective the system becomes for its owner. And even when the output from the system is negligible, for instance when it’s being charged, the system can still help you save: a smart Fronius Datamanager, which connects the inverter to the internet, will automatically start the charging process at times when electricity tariffs are lower.

FILL UP FOR FREE AT HOME AND DRIVE EMISSION-FREE

Combining e-mobility with your own photovoltaic system is smart, as it not only protects the environment, you see the benefit on your bank balance as well - like the Wittmann family has done: “My friends spend most of their monthly allowance just on petrol. I fill up for free and also drive emission-free,” comments the daughter of Manfred Wittmann, the owner of the system. 

She uses the self-generated PV energy to power her electric scooter. A storage unit has been added to the family’s PV system, making usage of the PV energy even more efficient. As a result, the family’s average self-consumption rate per annum has increased from 30 percent to 70 percent. “A good proportion of the energy is used to power our electric bikes, which run almost exclusively on solar power,” reports Wittmann.