The world may have been using electricity for some time now but we're still learning new things every day. Every year, the advances in renewable energy supplies improve, offering solutions that are more environmentally conscious, 100% renewable, and more cost-effective. As the buying public starts accepting electric vehicles in the mainstream, they're seeking out alternative methods for charging.
Related: Different ways to charge an electric car
Audi Centre Centurion is leading the way with the renewable energy approach, having just installed a solar power system to provide power to the dealership and more importantly, supply power to the quick chargers used for their e-tron range.
EV is not new
While you may think that the electric vehicle is a new concept, the idea has been around for longer than one thinks. The first cars were in fact, electric and the first vehicle to break the 100 km/h mark was indeed, electric. The La Jamais Contente achieved a speed of 105.88 km/h in 1899.
Internal combustion vehicles were not as popular as one thinks. Their noisy engines scared horses and made a racket. Owners were also prone to injuring themselves while attempting to start the engine using a crank handle. The irony of the initial death of electric cars was the invention of the electrical starter by a little company called Bosch.
Audi Centre Centurion makes the switch
Audi Centre Centurion has already embarked on a green approach with their sanitation and water but the next step was to make their electricity usage greener. This was prompted by the increased usage that resulted from the recent installation of the Audi e-tron fast chargers. These units provide 50 kW or power, placing a larger drain on the immediate grid.
Peter Preusse of Audi Centre Centurion reached out to Andreas Wagner of ANH Technologies to identify the typical power consumption of the dealership and analyze the typical patterns of usage. They came up with a solar solution after recognizing that the dealership's roof would be able to accommodate 50 kWp (50 kW worth of photovoltaic panels) which would be able to help offset their electricity bill.
To carry out this venture, Preusse enlisted the help of SMA Solar, a global company that is, coincidently, celebrating ten years of business on the African continent. Their single-source solutions were ideal for this project and SMA were keen to take on the challenge of turning the dealership into the first of its kind where EVs can be charged using solar energy.
Two sets of solar panels were installed on the roof of the dealership, one roof housing 47x 545 Watt panels and the other 54x 540 Watt panels. These were paired with a modular inverter, EV charger and battery storage system from SMA to ensure that all the systems function as intended. The final installation utilizes a 67 kWh battery reserve to ensure that during peak times, no additional load is placed on the Eskom grid, thus lowering the charges resulting from high consumption during peak times.
The smart solution is able to monitor the usage and automatically switch to solar when peak times arrive and use the low consumption periods to plumb charge into the batteries.
Solar for your home
These solar solutions are not only the realm of the industrial workplace, SMA has an 8 kWp modular, future-proof system available for home use as well, the SMA Energy System Home. These systems comprise of the SMA Sunny Tripower Smart Energy Inverter, a 3-phase 22 kW EV charger, a 10 kWh residential battery and is all controlled through the SMA Home Manager with remote access through the SMA Energy App.
A boon for EV owners, the SMA EV Charger Home system can charge at a rate of 7.4 kW, single phase, making it almost twice as powerful as the regular home outlet charger.
