Reading a CNET article discussing EV home charging via solar panels and one section intrigued me.
“Using solar panels to charge an EV actually streamlines the charging process because both systems speak the same electrical language, in a way.”
“As Wyldon Fishman, founder of the New York Solar Energy Society, explained, solar panels and electric vehicles both operate with direct current (DC), meaning there’s no need to install an inverter between your panels and EV, although a charge controller is still imperative to have in the circuit. DC can also run at lower, safer voltages…”
But, the question the article DOESN’T answer is, what solutions are available to facilitate DC to DC home EV charging for modern production cars? Because I sure haven’t seen any! A lot of us now have solar, but any solar charging systems I’ve found all convert the DC output of panels to AC, then the EVSE sends that AC BACK to the car to be converted to DC to charge the car. Seems inefficient in the extreme. Any ideas?
The problem here is: you don’t always have solar (e.g. in winter) and for most people the car isn’t at home while the sun is out because they have a job/commute.
Read: To make DC charging work at home reliably you need a pretty big battery storage system…and you have conversion losses twice: Once going from solar panels (or the grid) into the home storage battery and from there to the car.
It’s just not worth it.
I live in central Florida. The days where solar would be unlikely to meet my EV charging needs are few and far between.
But I’m not talking about building an off-grid home here; I’m merely saying that the article in question makes the point that solar panels generate direct current (DC) power and, as such, are ideal for charging electric cars, which store power as DC. Which is a cool, but it doesn’t address the fact that there is no commercially available solution for getting that energy from one to the other without conversion to, and then back from, alternating current.
Simply stated, the fact that the device that creates the power and the device that stores it utilize the same form of power is meaningless if you have no way to take advantage of that fact…🤷♂️
These guys seem to have disappeared? https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230214005397/en/Enteligent-Unveils-World%E2%80%99s-First-DC-to-DC-Solar-EV-Charger
This article misses one crucial detail, most solar installs are AC coupled, so you can’t access the DC side as the inverter is essentially attached directly to the panel.
- most North American solar installs are ac coupled
At least in Slovenia, and probably most of Europe, optimizers string inverters are used, so tapping to a dc line before the inverter is not that big of a deal
the car to be converted to DC to charge the car.
but it’s ok, because you are only losing sunlight.
what do you pay the grid to run AC at 5pm in July?
the loss charging the truck so you can NOT pay peak summer rates is not meaningful…
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric pickup that can power your house for days
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-electric-pickup-intelligent-backup-power-house/
the loss you experience charging the home battery is not meaningful
GM now has home energy products to sell alongside EVs
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/28/23776690/gm-energy-ultium-home-ev-charging-v2h-stationary-storageThey either don’t know what they’re talking about, or are talking about hypothetical technology that doesn’t exist, and nobody is motivated to make.
dcbel does bidirectional DC-DC charging/discharging over the CCS port. https://www.dcbel.energy/r16/
Okay, THAT’S really interesting…🤔
I believe this one does.
https://www.solaredge.com/en/products/residential/ev-chargingThe dc charger for cars is complicated (communication wise) and expensive to implement, its cheaper to throw more $$ into panels and ac than figure that out for individual homes - look at the prices of a dc charger and see how expensive they are