Enphase Bidirectional EV Charger Unveiled

Microinverter and battery storage manufacturer Enphase has provided a first look at its bidirectional EV charging device.

While a standard EV charger can only take energy from the grid or a home’s solar panels to charge an electric vehicle battery, a bidirectional charger can do that and also use energy stored in a car battery and feed it back to the home and/or grid.

Describing it as a “game-changer”, Enphase says its device is expected to work with most electric vehicles supporting standards such as CCS (Combined Charging System) and CHAdeMO (CHArge de MOve). In addition to charging, the Enphase bi-directional charger will support:

• Vehicle-to-home (V2H): Enables the use of an EV as a (very big) home battery system during blackouts.
• Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) – Allows an EV battery to discharge to the mains grid, enabling participation in the provision of grid services (e.g., a Virtual Power Plant – VPP). In V2G mode, energy from the EV battery can also supply the home.
• Green charging – Maximising the use of on-site solar panels for EV charging.

“Black Start” Feature

Regarding its blackout capabilities, the Enphase device will work when the EV is already present and connected when an outage begins, but also in a scenario where the EV isn’t initially connected at the time. This is achieved through a “black start” feature – a small battery within the charger that enables initial communications to begin once connected.

Enphase mentions its bidirectional charger will “turn any EV into a power source”; but that’s not correct as V2H and V2G functionality must also be supported by the vehicle.

You can learn more about V2H, V2G and bidirectional chargers here.

Unlike other bidirectional devices currently or soon to be available, this will be an Enphase-specific system. Stashed inside the charger will be IQ8 microinverters, which we’re *still* yet to see here in Australia as far as I know (but surely shouldn’t be far off). The charger will work in with Ensemble energy management technology and integrate into Enphase home energy systems. Homeowners will be able to manage their solar, battery storage and EV charging from within the Enphase app.

When And How Much?

As for when the charger will be available, Enphase says the company is working with standards organizations, EV manufacturers and regulators to bring it to market next year. Which market will see it first wasn’t mentioned, but given Australia is still considered somewhat of an EV backwater (for now), we may not get first dibs. There’s no indication of pricing at this point, but expect it to be expensive as:

• Bidirectional chargers are generally pretty pricey (around $AUD 10k currently), although that should change as more products become available.
• Enphase kit is not cheap.

While this may be Enphase Energy’s first branded contribution to EV charging, the company has access to plenty of know-how and manufacturing capability thanks to its acquisition of ClipperCreek last year. One of the reasons Enphase acquired ClipperCreek was to accelerate its plans relating to bi-directional charging capability for V2H and V2G applications.

For a deeper dive into the new device, check out Enphase’s bi-directional charger white paper.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/enphase-bidirectional-charger-mb2817/