Electromobility: How the sun gets into the tank

Anyone who thinks the transformation of energy supply into climate-friendly technologies through comes to the logical conclusion that we must not stop at the transport sector. On the contrary, transport still accounts for a large proportion of global CO₂ emissions. Here there is still a lot of untapped potential for climate protection – and photovoltaics plays a central role in this. In private transport, pure battery technology is increasingly gaining acceptance as an efficient and technologically developed form of propulsion. However, the electrification of passenger car fleets only makes ecological sense if the vehicles are "fueled" with clean solar power or other renewable energies. 

So, if we consistently rely on green electricity for electromobility we can exploit further synergy effects with the car itself. The batteries in the vehicles, which now have capacities of up to 100 kWh, can also be used as mobile electricity storage units. More and more car manufacturers are enabling their vehicles for so-called bidirectional charging. Here, the car owner or even a network operator with data access to the vehicle can decide when and whether a full battery should be used, for example, to compensate for local green electricity shortages in the low-voltage range. This technology can also make a lot of economic sense. In the future fluctuating demand may also cause electricity prices to fluctuate wildly at different times of the day. Coupled with intelligent software it will be possible to decide when batteries in vehicles should absorb solar power and when they should feed it back into the local grid. Ultimately, solar electromobility is a classic win-win situation for the climate, energy transition and securing affordable individual mobility in the 21^st century.