As we transition away from polluting fossil-fuelled vehicles to electric vehicles it is common for owners to think about the source of the electricity they use for charging.
Here I’d like to touch on the options for charging with renewable electricity, and introduce the idea of charging at night using spare solar electricity.
A rule of thumb is that moving from a fossil-fuelled vehicle to an electric vehicle (EV) roughly halves the pollution and carbon footprint if that vehicle is powered from the grid. It is natural, therefore, for an EV owner to look to renewable energy to reduce their footprint further.
Until recently electric vehicle (EV) owners had two main options for charging their vehicle from renewable electricity.
Option 1: Renewable Electricity Supply
The simplest option for renewable EV charging is to switch your entire home electricity supply over to a renewable supply. This is very easy and takes little effort. There are often lots of options for renewable supply companies (in the UK historically it tended to be Ecotricity and Good Energy but now there are many others).
It used to be that such supplies often had a price premium over more polluting (i.e. coal-based) tariffs but that’s become less true over time. When I switched I hadn’t previously switched for some time so going renewable actually saved me money over staying on my previous coal-based tariff.
Read more: Linked In
