EV Readiness for Strata - Section 8 - Solar Powered EV Charging
One of the first questions people ask when they get an electric vehicle, is whether it is possible to charge it using solar power. In Sydney, the following apartment buildings are already offering solar powered EV charging either in a visitor carparking spot or at individual lot owner carspaces. It is likely that this will become a selling feature when EV owners are selecting apartment blocks in which to buy an apartment in the future.
1.Zinc, 30-44 Garden St Alexandria. Flat cable on perimeter of carpark running past all carspaces. Wi-Fi repeaters in carpark for EV chargepoints and software load balancing. 3 x Wattwatchers monitoring devices. Solar-powered EV charging off common area meter available to all individual lot carspaces in the building. The EV charging infrastructure cost $30,000 for a building with 45 lots and can be considered the "model architecture for EV charging in an apartment building in NSW". It has been covered in the Sydney Morning Herald in an article which is here.
1.Zinc, 30-44 Garden St Alexandria. Flat cable on perimeter of carpark running past all carspaces. Wi-Fi repeaters in carpark for EV chargepoints and software load balancing. 3 x Wattwatchers monitoring devices. Solar-powered EV charging off common area meter available to all individual lot carspaces in the building. The EV charging infrastructure cost $30,000 for a building with 45 lots and can be considered the "model architecture for EV charging in an apartment building in NSW". It has been covered in the Sydney Morning Herald in an article which is here.
2. Genesis, 133 Bowden St Meadowbank. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
3. The Burcham, 6-8 Crewe Place Rosebery. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
4. Botanic, 176 Blaxland Rd Top Ryde. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot. This is a build-to-rent and has an EV on carshare for exclusive use of the residents which is charged up using solar power, when it is available.
5. Evolve, 1-5 Bathurst St Liverpool. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot
6. 25-29 Gertrude St Wolli Creek, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
7. 1 Prime Drive Seven Hills, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
8. 12-18 Bridge St Homebush, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
9. 59a Queen St Auburn, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
For people who are interested to read more about solar on strata, a good whitepaper is here. We have also put a number of solar on strata videos on youtube which can be found here. There is also a Solar Readiness for Strata training course available here.
Batteries and EV Charging
The first battery system was installed into an apartment building in Sydney back in 2015. However, no apartment buildings in Sydney have installed a separate solar + battery system specifically for the task of charging electric vehicles. Some high-end strata buildings have done scoping studies on whether this is possible but none have proceeded to implementation as at 2022.
In the final quarter of 2021, strata apartment buildings in council programs such as Inner West Go Solar for Strata, North Sydney Futureproofing Apartments and City of Sydney Ratings & Assessment grants voted to install battery systems in conjunction with solar power systems which means the battery pricing is just becoming viable. A Battery Comparison Fact Sheet for strata is here.
Virtual Power Plants and Strata Apartment Buildings
The batteries inside electric vehicles inside residential apartment buildings will be able to participate in Virtual Power Plant programs in the future.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) describes a system in which electric vehicles communicate with the power grid to sell demand response services (i.e. to assist grid stabilisation) by either returning electricity to the grid or by throttling their charging rate. Utilities will pay for this demand response service offered by V2G, because it means that they don’t have to turn on backup power plants, which are usually coal or natural gas burners.
4. Botanic, 176 Blaxland Rd Top Ryde. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot. This is a build-to-rent and has an EV on carshare for exclusive use of the residents which is charged up using solar power, when it is available.
5. Evolve, 1-5 Bathurst St Liverpool. Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot
6. 25-29 Gertrude St Wolli Creek, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
7. 1 Prime Drive Seven Hills, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
8. 12-18 Bridge St Homebush, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
9. 59a Queen St Auburn, Solar powered EV charging in visitor spot.
For people who are interested to read more about solar on strata, a good whitepaper is here. We have also put a number of solar on strata videos on youtube which can be found here. There is also a Solar Readiness for Strata training course available here.
Batteries and EV Charging
The first battery system was installed into an apartment building in Sydney back in 2015. However, no apartment buildings in Sydney have installed a separate solar + battery system specifically for the task of charging electric vehicles. Some high-end strata buildings have done scoping studies on whether this is possible but none have proceeded to implementation as at 2022.
In the final quarter of 2021, strata apartment buildings in council programs such as Inner West Go Solar for Strata, North Sydney Futureproofing Apartments and City of Sydney Ratings & Assessment grants voted to install battery systems in conjunction with solar power systems which means the battery pricing is just becoming viable. A Battery Comparison Fact Sheet for strata is here.
Virtual Power Plants and Strata Apartment Buildings
The batteries inside electric vehicles inside residential apartment buildings will be able to participate in Virtual Power Plant programs in the future.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) describes a system in which electric vehicles communicate with the power grid to sell demand response services (i.e. to assist grid stabilisation) by either returning electricity to the grid or by throttling their charging rate. Utilities will pay for this demand response service offered by V2G, because it means that they don’t have to turn on backup power plants, which are usually coal or natural gas burners.
V2G storage capabilities can also enable EVs to store and discharge electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, with output that fluctuates depending on weather and time of day. For example, wind farms generate the most output during the night when it's windy. However, this is also the time when there is minimal load on the electricity grid when everyone is sleeping. As a result, the wind farm operators may be forced to shut down the wind farm during times of high wind speed. With V2G technologies, the EVs would smartly store the additional output from the wind farms and release the energy during the day when the electricity grid is at peak demand.
Trials of this technology are currently being done in the ACT using Nissan Leafs. At this point, Tesla has not committed to supporting any V2X (Vehicle to Grid, Vehicle to Home, Vehicle to Load) technology in their vehicles. However, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the latest Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV have this capability on board. At this stage, Vehicle to Grid chargepoints are so expensive that it is not feasible to install them into a strata building. This will change as the price of these chargepoints comes down.
You may want to watch a video on Virtual Power Plants and Strata Apartment Buildings here.
You may want to watch a video on Virtual Power Plants and Strata Apartment Buildings here.
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Genesis Solar Power and EV charging case study
Join us walking through a case study of the first solar powered EV charging in an apartment building in NSW at the "Genesis" building. Watch on Youtube |