Can I charge from my excess solar with Amber for EVs?

At Amber we know that most EV owners have solar and love charging from their solar if they can. We also know that in order to do so, people currently have to invest in an excess solar capable charger, or sign up to an app which integrates with their solar inverter. We want to make excess solar capable charging available to more people, regardless of their hardware which is why we’re offering predictive and connected solar.

These two solar charging options expand the range of possibilities for EV + Solar owners who prefer to charge off their solar where possible. Whenever you have excess, Amber for EVs will start charging your car. When your excess disappears, charging will stop. This allows you to get more value from your solar, given that it is almost always worth more to you than it is to sell it to the grid.

Amber’s excess solar charging is also feed-in tariff aware, so that if the FiT rises above a given threshold it will stop charging your car and sell your excess to the grid. You get to choose what your preferred FiT threshold is.

Predictive and connected excess solar charging

Whether you use connected or predictive solar charging depends on whether we can connect with your solar inverter or not.

At the moment, we support the following inverters for connected excess solar charging for EVs with Amber:

• SolarEdge inverters
• Some Sungrow inverters*
• Single Fronius inverter

*Click here for our full list of supported solar inverters

Supported inverters will also have access to our Solar Curtailment functionality which helps mitigate costs incurred from exporting when Feed-in prices drop below zero.

My inverter’s compatible…

1. In the Amber app, navigate to the Devices tab
2. Select the option to Enrol Solar and/or Battery

Select your solar inverter brand and submit the relevant details such as serial number to begin linking your solar inverter(s) to Amber. Once this is done we will be able to read the solar data straight from your inverter. 

My inverter’s not compatible…

If you don't have a compatible solar inverter that we can connect with, we will work with predictive excess solar charging.

In your Charge Controls page, find the Predictive Solar Charging control. Tap "Tell us about your solar system" and you’ll be taken to a screen to set some initial values.

We will ask for your typical peak solar generation on a sunny day as well as your typical household consumption through your solar production hours. It doesn’t need to be exact, just your best estimate of typical.

How do I find my typical solar generation?

A few tips on how to best estimate your typical solar generation:

• Check your solar monitoring app and look at the solar production curve on a sunny day
• If you don't have access to this, ask your solar installer.
• Take a readout from the LCD screen on your solar inverter if it has one
• Use your inverter's nameplate power

We’ll pair that solar generation value with the solar data we get from AEMO which helps us predict how much solar you’ll generate throughout the day as well as how weather may affect your generation.

While these predictions aren’t perfect, they allow us to make useful assumptions. Please note that some grid energy may still be used for charging