Charging your car with your own solar panels
Charging your car with your own solar panels: with BlueSky it’s really possible!
Directly charge your electric car with the energy generated by your own home solar panels. Who wouldn’t want that?
Unfortunately, not all charging stations are capable of sending solar energy directly to your car’s battery. This is because chargers and electric cars comply with the IEC-61851-3 standard, which stipulates a minimum charging current (power) of 6A per phase. For a 3-phase charger, this means a minimum threshold of 4.2 kW.
Often, the electricity generated by solar panels isn’t enough to reach this threshold. As a result, grid power is “mixed in” to meet the minimum requirement. However, BlueBird Power’s smart EV charger has a unique function that disconnects 2 of the 3 phases. This drastically lowers the threshold from 4.2 kW to 1.4 kW, so the remaining phase gets enough power from the solar panels to reach the threshold — allowing all solar energy to be loaded directly into the battery.
How does this work in practice?
Take a look at these beautiful statistics from one of our fantastic users.
In the first graph, we see the real-time power data coming in, where the colors represent:
Blue: Car charging power
Green: Solar energy generated minus household consumption
Yellow: Total grid connection power
In this graph, you can see that the blue line (charging) follows the green line (solar surplus) inversely. If more solar energy is available, charging speeds up — and vice versa. This way, the yellow line (total grid power) stays neatly around zero.
In the second graph, we see the accumulated energy in 15-minute blocks. In this case, the household had a net grid consumption of only 0.016 kWh (16.3 Wh) over a period of 45 minutes. In that same period, they charged 1.5 kWh. That means they charged ~99% on their own solar energy!
For the experts:
This household uses a 3-phase charger. With a normal 3-phase charger, the minimum charging speed is 4.2 kW. At the lowest charging rate, this example would not even have achieved 50% solar charging.
But thanks to BlueBird Power’s smart BlueSky charger with its unique, dynamic phase-switching function, we can ensure that our customers’ solar production really goes into the car’s battery — without any “sneaky” mixing of grid power. That’s why we sometimes call it True Solar.
The benefits of charging your car with solar energy
Maximize self-consumption of solar energy. Without good energy management, a household’s solar energy is often fed back into the grid instead of being used directly. By integrating smart EV chargers with solar installations, households can prioritize their own electricity, reduce grid dependency, and lower energy costs.
No more purchasing electricity from the grid. Direct charging from solar panels minimizes the CO₂ emissions associated with grid power, so electric cars truly run on clean energy.
Reduce grid load. By charging EVs with solar energy, households can relieve pressure on the electricity grid, especially during solar production peak hours.
Get the most out of your solar panels with BlueBird Power’s smart EV charger!
Happy charging! ⚡