In a scramble for the expanding scale of the U.S. residential PV power market, SolarEdge of the U.S. has announced recently combining its electric-car charger with Google Assistance, whose function will enable consumers to start charging simply by saying "OK Google."
The cooperation was unveiled during CES, calling for integration of SolarEdge solar electric-car charger-PV inverters with Google Assistance.
Attracted by the rosy outlook on renewable energy and electric car, SolarEdge, a leading smart-energy and PV inverter firm, has been aggressively expanding its presence in the green-energy market, including development of virtual grid service and remote power-plant management and monitoring platform, in addition to foraying into electric-car and energy-storage system, via acquisition of Gamatronic, an Israeli UPS (uninterruptable power system) manufacturer, Korean battery firm Kokam, and Italian electric-car charger supplier SMRE.
Photo courtesy of SolarEdge
Previously, SolarEdge already combined residential PV power device with electric-car charger, enabling consumers to use power generated by their residential PV power device to charge their electric cars, skipping the need to install a standalone electric-car charger. Equipped with a boost converter, the system can makes charging six times faster than common chargers, as a result of which one hour of charging is good for 40-48 kilometers of cruising range, compared with 8-15 kilometers of the latter.
With the addition of Google Assistant, consumers can switch on and off SolarEdge electric-car charger-PV inverter with voice command. In the future, SolarEdge hopes to expand the functions of Google Assistant, such as tracking charging progress, checking cruising range for existing battery power, and advance billing.
Lior Handelsman, marketing and product strategy vice president of SolarEdge, pointed out that the next step is to combine electric-car charger with smart energy management system, which can convert consumers into an energy manager.
In addition to cooperation with SolarEdge electric-car charger, Google Assistant has also been applied in other household electric-car chargers, such as JuiceBox Level 2 of eMotorWerks.
Penetration rate of rooftop PV power device in the U.S. is expected to hit % by 2040, according Bloomberg. It is a trend for furnishing PV power devices with smart functions.
(Collaborative media: TechNews, first photo courtesy of Pixabay)