According to a recent study by researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA), homes with solar panels and batteries have a significant financial advantage when it comes to saving money on electric vehicle (EV).
As the number of people buying electric vehicles (EVs) rises around the world, people who want to buy one are thinking about more than just the sticker price.
UniSA engineers say that electric vehicle owners can save almost 40% on their annual electricity costs if they don’t have to rely on the grid and charge their cars at home during off-peak hours.
In a new paper published in Renewable Energy, Professor Mahfuz Aziz and colleagues address one of the major deterrents to choosing an environmentally friendly vehicle: EV owners’ worries about charging costs.
Prof. Aziz says that “electric vehicle will become an important part of household energy consumption around the world” because gasoline-powered cars will be phased out in the next ten years.
“Home charging is the most practical option for drivers with private parking spaces, but the costs could be significant for those who still completely rely on the electricity grid for their energy.”
Researchers say that historically low prices for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems and falling prices for batteries are pushing people to “go green” in their homes, but people need to think about a number of things first.
The researchers compared various household scenarios using data from South Australia, where more than 40% of homes have rooftop solar panels, taking into account factors like EV charging demand, PV solar panel installation cost, battery deterioration, and export power limits.
Researchers analyzed annual energy costs for households with petrol-powered cars and those with EVs based on typical household energy consumption (17 kW/day in SA) and motorists’ average daily travel distance (36.7km in AU). They also examined energy use between the hours of 5 and 9 o’clock in the evening.
Where there are no solar panels, batteries, or electric vehicles, all energy is imported from the grid, according to Prof. Aziz.
“While the amount of energy consumed increases significantly with the addition of electric vehicles, the amount of energy imported can be reduced by about 89 percent of total consumption when solar panels and batteries are added.”
Our findings show that households with gasoline-powered vehicles can cut their annual energy costs by 6.71% by using solar panels and by 10.38% by adding a battery system. Electric cars can cut annual energy costs by 24% and 32%, respectively, compared to gasoline-powered cars. With off-peak charging, the biggest reduction (39.6%) can be attained.
Ms. Yan Wu, a PhD candidate, and Dr. Mohammed Haque, a co-supervisor, are part of a research team that is looking into cost-effective EV charging strategies for larger groups, like residential communities and university campuses, while minimizing the impact on the power grid and distribution feeders.
Despite the pandemic, electric vehicle sales increased globally by 43% in 2020, although they only represented 0.7% of all car sales in Australia. According to drive.com, the popularity of electric vehicles is growing quickly across the globe, and by 2030, there will be 145 million EVs on the road, up from 11 million today.
But by 2030, it’s anticipated that at least 50% of all new car sales in NSW will be electric, and that other states will follow this trend.
