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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: 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.