Solar panel customers can now their electric vehicle batteries to earn cash and power their home in a new trial.

Solar PV customers will be able to harness cheaper electricity stored in their EV to power their home

EDF is running a new offer that allows customers with existing solar panels to harness their EVs as home batteries – charging when prices are low or when they have excess solar electricity and selling power back to the grid when prices are high.

Customers will also be able to harness cheaper electricity stored in their electric vehicle to power their home.

Trialists will utilise EDF’s existing Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff and use Indra Renewables bi-directional chargers to integrate their EV battery and solar panels, enabling them to sell any surplus power from their car batteries to the grid at the best times.

The initiative could potentially earn drivers an average of £650 a year compared to a smart charging baseline, based on research carried out by EDF.

Analysis by Loughborough University and the University of Sheffield will explore the export tariff’s feasibility for optimising customer EV charging to ensure it is aligned with low carbon generation and at the lowest cost to the customer.

EDF will collect data throughout the trial, which has just begun and ends in February 2025, providing customers with insights into their charging behaviour, helping to reinforce smart charging habits that will save cash for the customers and avoid charging at carbon-intensive times.

This trial is one of five created and developed as part of a wider project by EDF’s Research and Development and Customer teams. It’s part of the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Alternative Energy Markets Innovation Programme and is backed by £1.3m of funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).

Patrick Dupeyrat, director of research and development at EDF, said: “Our mission at EDF is to help Britain to achieve net zero, and we will only succeed by empowering our customers and giving them the flexibility to manage their energy at home, saving them cash and carbon.

“This trial is exactly the type of innovation the industry should be striving for, delivering exciting new ways to reduce pressure on the grid and customers’ pockets and getting people across Britain engaged in their net zero journey.”

Other trials being run by EDF include a new electric vehicle tariff that automates smart charging to unlock cash and carbon savings for EV drivers.

The EV OptiCharge tariff trial allows participants to use automated controls so that their vehicles are charged at optimum times overnight. The move will reduce consumption during carbon-intensive and grid-strained periods, helping customers save cash and carbon while also relieving pressure on the grid.

EDF has also launched various recent offers for EV owners, including its Evolve scheme, said to be one of the cheapest EV tariffs on the market for drivers with any EV or charger. It’s expected to save customers around £200 a year whilst promising that they will never pay more than the Ofgem price cap.