Solar Powered EV Charging Stations - Leveraging Australia's Abundant Sunshine
With its abundant sunshine, Australia has an opportunity to turbocharge the growth of electric vehicles by embracing solar-powered EV charging stations, similar to initiatives being rolled out in France.
Solar PV canopies installed over public parking lots can generate clean electricity to power EV chargers. France is mandating these solar power canopies for public car parks, with an expected 11 gigawatts of energy generation, enough for nearly 8 million homes.
With Australia’s even greater solar resources, averaging 2800 sunlight hours per year in major cities compared to France’s 2000 hours, solar EV charging stations could be an impactful solution.
Solar carport chargers provide shade and cooling for vehicles, reducing air conditioning needs when drivers return. The growth of public charging infrastructure is critical for increased EV adoption.
Falling Behind in Global EV Markets
In the UK, the ratio of EVs to public chargers has risen from 5:1 in 2015 to 19:1 in 2023 as ownership increased. But in Australia, with EV adoption rates similar to the UK in 2019, there are 23 EVs per public charger, indicating a lack of charging infrastructure growth.
Without tax incentives and charging investments, Australia risks falling behind as a global EV market despite strong consumer demand. EVs were 7.4% of 2022 sales in Australia, versus 16% in the UK and 79.3% in leading EV market Norway.
New vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, allowing EVs to feed power back to the grid, combined with Australia’s solar resources, could enable the country to become an EV leader.
With Australia’s even greater solar resources, averaging 2800 sunlight hours per year in major cities compared to France’s 2000 hours, solar EV charging stations could be an impactful solution.
Opportunities with Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Technology
New vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, allowing EVs to feed power back to the grid, combined with Australia’s solar resources, could enable the country to become an EV leader.
Australian EV owners are already using smart chargers and solar panels to charge vehicles from sunlight. V2G means EVs can discharge power back to the grid at night.
Denmark is experimenting with compensating EV owners for selling electricity via V2G. With high solar adoption, Australia is well positioned to benefit from V2G financially and through grid stabilisation, once automakers such as Nissan and VW broadly support the technology in their models.
Seizing the Momentum
With abundant sun and the right policies, Australia could capitalize on solar EV charging to reduce emissions, support the grid, and make driving more affordable. The country has an opportunity to harness its renewable resources to become a global EV powerhouse.
A version of this article first appeared on Fleet EV News.
Dunstan is the founder of EV charger design consultancy, Versinetic. He is a chartered electronics engineer who has been providing design, production support and consultancy to businesses around the world for over 30 years. Dunstan graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in electronics engineering in 1992. After working in the industry for several years, he co-founded multi-award-winning electronics engineering consultancy ByteSnap Design in 2008. He then went on to launch international EV charging design consultancy Versinetic during the 2020 global lockdown. An experienced conference speaker domestically and internationally, Dunstan covers several areas of EV charger design and electronics product development, including load balancing, V2G, IoT, integrated software design and complex project management.
In his spare time, Dunstan enjoys hiking and astronomy.
