Electric cars powered by Yingli Solar

Yingli Green Energy Australia (Yingli Solar) has completed the installation of a residential solar system in the suburb of Blackburn, Melbourne, designed to produce enough solar energy to power two electric cars. As explained by the homeowner, “We wanted to use solar power to cover as much of our household’s energy consumption as possible — which included charging our two plug-in electric cars.”

Using Yingli Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and an Enphase Microinverter System, the 13.5 kW project was designed by Yingli Solar’s installation partner, EnviroGroup. Solar energy from the system is used to recharge a Tesla Model S car and a Nissan Leaf car.

The system has the ability to store any solar energy produced in the day for use at night as well as for backup power. This means the installation will reduce the homeowner’s dependence on the grid, reducing the home’s carbon footprint by 21 tonnes per year.

Optimised for terrestrial light, Yingli Solar’s PANDA n-type silicon technology was used to allow panels to produce high energy yields in low light conditions, such as partial shading around the home. The 270 W solar panels were meanwhile combined with Enphase M250 Microinverters to suit the home’s various roof angles.

“The whole system works as intended,” the home owner said, “and I am happy with EnviroGroup’s recommendation of the high-efficiency Yingli PANDA solar panels, Enphase Microinverters and Sonnenschein lithium batteries.”

The project was nominated as a finalist for a Battery Back-up Award at the 2015 Clean Energy Council Solar Design and Installation Awards, presented last week in Melbourne.