The clean energy market is constantly evolving, and solar installers are used to adapting. Solar hot water installs were quickly overtaken by the shift to rooftop PV. Threats to net metering and more utility shutdowns have required contractors to get comfortable with installing batteries alongside more advanced solar layouts. Just as the industry receives a standalone storage investment tax credit that could accelerate home battery adoption<\/a> even further, a new product could flip the market on its head again \u2014 the bidirectional EV charger.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s much more cost-effective to use your car [as a home battery]. The battery cost is underwritten in the purchase of the car,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you look at a home battery system, it costs over $1,000\/kWh to install. Leveraging your car battery with a bidirectional charger will cost closer to $50\/kWh installed. That\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n A bidirectional charger both charges an EV\u2019s battery and exports its power into a home or onto the grid. This vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) power transfer is also collectively known as vehicle-to-everything (V2X). EV chargers installed today are unidirectional and only transfer power to the battery. Three things are preventing V2X from being a more valuable option: 1) EV brands have to allow the dual power flow, 2) more bidirectional chargers have to be certified and manufactured, and 3) utilities and grid operators have to understand (and compensate) this new distributed energy resource.<\/p>\n Ford showcasing its backup capabilities<\/p><\/div>\n Interest is piquing though. When Ford announced<\/a> its electric F-150 Lightning\u2019s 131-kWh battery could be used as home backup through its \u201cCharge Station Pro and Home Integration System,\u201d the general public took notice. GM soon announced<\/a> it was testing V2X capabilities, and companies like Emporia, Wallbox and Enphase are working on their own bidirectional EV chargers.<\/p>\n V2X software developer Fermata Energy<\/a> was the first bidirectional charger company to have UL 9741 certification<\/a>, the standard that covers bidirectional charging equipment and includes functionality to export power to the grid. Fermata\u2019s FE-15 charger was recently joined by Ford\u2019s charger<\/a> (made by Siemens) as the only two on the market to have UL 9741 certification<\/a>. Fermata\u2019s FE-15 charger is also the only one approved to work with the Nissan LEAF, the first mass-produced EV in the United States.<\/p>\n Fermata Energy CEO David Slutzky said the market opportunity for V2X is huge \u2014 not only for EV drivers wanting emergency backup or compensation for grid participation, but also for utilities and grid operators seeking to gain access to a large network of dispatchable energy assets.<\/p>\n Nissan using a Fermata bidirectional charger<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cV2X is enabling the extraction of multiple value streams from parked electric vehicles and presenting them to different customers to enable those vehicles to suddenly become more cost-effective as assets to enable an accelerated deployment of renewable energy on the grid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While the benefits to EV owners are more obvious, grid operators tapped in to V2X would get a big energy resource without having to build or maintain a site. As an example, almost 200,000 Nissan LEAFs<\/a> have been sold in the United States since 2011. With a 40-kWh battery coming standard in the 2023 LEAF, one could estimate almost 8 GWh of battery capacity sitting in garages from LEAFs alone. In comparison, the United States has spent billions of dollars over the same time period to reach 13.4 GWh of stationary energy storage<\/a> capacity. Add Teslas, Chevy Bolts, Ford F-150 Lightnings and more to the equation and you can finally understand the grid benefits of V2X, Slutzky said.<\/p>\n \u201cV2X will not displace stationary storage, but it will surround stationary storage and provide enormous additional storage,\u201d he said. \u201cA Nissan LEAF has 4.5 Powerwalls under the hood, and they came free with the leather seats and air conditioning. The Ford F-150 Lightning has more value under the hood in storage than the cost of the vehicle, literally.\u201d<\/p>\n While interest is high, the industry still has to tackle the three setbacks mentioned above to get V2X moving. First, EVs have to allow their batteries to be used in a dual-flow situation. Until recently, EV companies were not comfortable with batteries cycling through usage outside of normal driving. Now EV warranties are better reflecting battery usage in V2X situations, and Slutzky said EV models hitting the market today have bidirectional tap-ins.<\/p>\n Emporia’s bidirectional charger prototype<\/p><\/div>\n Bidirectional chargers have been slow to develop because the technology is obviously more advanced than what\u2019s in a unidirectional EV charger. A more powerful inverter has to be installed to allow for the AC-to-DC power exchange and back again. That dual power transfer generates heat, so more fans and higher-rated enclosures have to be used. Automatic transfer switches must be included if the vehicle wants to work with the grid. Add in software developments to ensure the consumer can use the charger like any other smart device and the utility can access that power, and suddenly you have a much bigger and more complicated product to manufacture.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what Emporia Energy<\/a> is learning. The home energy management company makes smart plugs, energy monitors, ESS and traditional EV chargers and announced in early 2022<\/a> it would make an affordable bidirectional charger. McLaughlin said the company is working through certification and testing and is hopeful that the Emporia V2X Charger will hit the market in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more than a Level 2 charger, when you think about the power conversion and the heat it generates. Then the need for an automatic transfer switch, and you\u2019ll need an energy monitoring system to detect when the grid is down. Then you throw in IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) voltage control standards,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of these things just stacked. It all adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n Brent Alderfer, CEO and Founder of Electric Frog Company; Michael Emond, Superintendent of the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility; and Wallace Ridgeway, Director of Asset Deployment for Fermata Energy, at the delivery of the electric vehicle in Rhode Island.<\/p><\/div>\n Perhaps most important is getting utilities tuned in to the benefits. That\u2019s where companies with grid functionality software will have a leg-up. Emporia is well-versed in helping customers participate in grid programs, and Fermata would actually prefer to be the V2X software provider other bidirectional chargers use. Fermata has already worked with different utilities to devise new monetization mechanisms to access V2X\u2019s value streams. The company\u2019s V2X software is allowing an EV used by Burrillville, Rhode Island, city employees to send power back<\/a> to Rhode Island Energy (formerly National Grid) and get compensation through the ConnectedSolutions program. Another Fermata setup in Boulder, Colorado<\/a>, reduced peak power demand on a city building and saved the city an average of $270\/month \u2014 approximately the monthly payment for the Nissan LEAF.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people today are thinking about V2H as backup power and that\u2019s because of the Ford Lightning. Once people understand that we can produce energy savings on our utility bills through grid parity, that\u2019s going to change pretty quickly,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cEarly adopters will buy for backup, and then when they can reduce their energy bill by 50%, word of mouth will spread. Within the next three or four years, the majority of use will be managing energy efficiency and savings during grid parity vs. just using during grid outages.\u201d<\/p>\n An EV charger installation is not plug-and-play, and contractors familiar with electrical hookups will be needed to equip more homes and businesses with the bidirectional product. If solar installers know how to install an ESS or a solar inverter, they can install a bidirectional charger.<\/p>\n \u201cInstalling a bidirectional charger is similar to installing solar + a battery inverter. Installing a bidirectional charger may be a little easier because you\u2019re not dealing with big, heavy battery modules,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cOf course you\u2019ll have to install it where it can access the EV, but the actual electrical work will be very similar but a little less complex than batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/stock-EV-electric-charger-500x325.jpg\")
<\/a>An electric vehicle\u2019s battery is an underused asset. As a portable energy storage system (ESS) with a much bigger capacity than the stationary ESS sold today, it makes sense to tap into the unit when it\u2019s just sitting in the garage. The hardware that would allow that to happen, the bidirectional EV charger, should begin hitting the market in earnest later this year or early 2024, and solar installers would be smart to get involved with EVs now, as residential customers begin to understand the preferable economics, said Shawn McLaughlin, CEO of home energy management company Emporia Energy.<\/p>\nThe opportunity<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/a>What still needs to be done<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/a>Where the solar installer fits<\/strong><\/h4>\n