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Owners of home photovoltaic systems will soon be able to make their households even more sustainable, because PV power is also suitable for charging personal electronic vehicles. A home energy management system created by Fraunhofer researchers incorporates electric vehicles into the household energy network and creates charging itineraries.
The house of the future is environmentally friendly, energy efficient and smart. Its inhabitants can utilize rooftop-generated PV energy not only for household consumption but also to charge their personal electric vehicle. This scenario has already become reality for a collection of row houses built according to the "Passive House" standard in the German city of Fellbach in Baden-Württemberg. The group of new homes was upgraded as part of the "Fellbach ZeroPlus" project to include electromobility enhancements as well as a comprehensive energy management system. The initiative is sponsored by the German Federal Government's "Electric Mobility Showcase" program.
A couple Soylentils have done something like this, so perhaps this would be of interest to others who are considering doing likewise.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @10:15AM
You're either a utility company shill, or failed EE 101 miserably. Either way, -1 Half-wit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VanderDecken on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:49PM
Wow. I post something a little negative and all of a sudden I'm a troll, a shill, and a half-wit.
Actually, I'm all for moving away from fossil fuels. However with respect to my original comment I happen to be in an area where this time of year there *is* no sunlight during the hours people are typically home from work, so without power storage you're not going to be charging your car at home from PV. Unfortunately most of our electrical power here is still being produced by burning coal, and mid-winter temperatures have this nasty habit of killing at least traditional car batteries, both of which reduce the attractiveness of electrical vehicles *for me*. I'm also bright enough to realize that this is a relatively localized problem and does not alter the fact that these advances are good overall. I remain hopeful that battery technologies et al continue to improve WRT effectiveness and minimizing environmental impact during production and recovery.
For the record, I was actually going for "Funny", but it was late, I was tired, and I guess I only made it half-way there ...
The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
(Score: 3, Funny) by TrumpetPower! on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:04PM
+1 for identifying your failing, -1 for still refusing to admit it. Fifty-fifty, indeed: only halfway to a wit.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:36PM
Wow. I post something a little negative and all of a sudden I'm a troll, a shill, and a half-wit.
"Solar doesn't work at night." meh, perhaps a bit FUDdy/Trolly.
In this particular case, though, the houses in question don't actually have any storage. So, consider than in your modding analysis.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:35PM
Well I have an EE degree, don't work for a utility, and was going to post more or less the same (except my current sunset time is 16.30), what does that make me?
This idea suffers from the same problem as all other solar pv - generation is out of phase with demand, both daily and seasonally. It very likely has a further out-of-phase problem in that domestic demand is likely to be highest when people are at home, and lowest when they are out - in the car.
(Score: 1) by dak664 on Tuesday November 03 2015, @04:17PM
So use two cars and alternate charge days. Minimal lifestyle change if you have the money.
Or carpool. Or bike to work. Public transportation. I know, infra dig.
Once you accept the mindset, scheduling car usage for evenings or cloudy days would become automatic after a while. People used to do many activities based on weather and time of day. Laundry, making hay, canoodling. Not necessary for a private car to be available 100% of the time.
Grid tie makes the most sense for buffering PV output, but if the power companies close that door then electric autos are a good alternative.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday November 04 2015, @04:46AM
Grid tie is useful, but it doesn't make it work here in Oz. Now that the gov subsidies are ending and FIT contracts expiring, the power companies meter both ways and pay ~6 cents/kwHr in, and charge ~28 cents back out. So every Kw/hr you "store" for later still costs you 22 cents.
(At the same time the power companies are complaining about people who add a couple of switches and run supposedly off-peak systems directly (mostly hot water or under-floor heating), instead of cycling the power through their billing apparatus.)
I think this would be the market for a car with a swappable battery. Have it sit in a pocket that opens at the back of the car and runs all the way under the passenger compartment, on rails. An extra battery and something like a small custom pallet jack to move them would have to be cheaper than a second car. Bonus would be using the second battery for solar power storage and the ability to power the house during outages.
If there was a company doing this I would certainly be interested in an integrated system of high power PV (20 ~ 30 KW) on the house, smallish electric car (range => 60km) and swappable battery storage useful for both.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.