Frequently asked questions

  • The sort of organisations that would benefit the most from hosting their EV chargers with SolarCharge are those that:

    • Have rooftop solar that, at least some of the time, generates more energy than is used on site, resulting in that excess energy being exported to the grid; and

    • Have cars parked on site for longer than an hour or two during the day. These could be employees, customers or visitors to nearby venues.

    If this sounds like you, get in touch and we'd love to help you make the most of your investment in clean energy assets!

    Even if you don’t have rooftop solar, you are welcome to host your EV chargers with SolarCharge for use as a payment platform for allowing employees, customers and the public to charge their plug-in EVs using your chargers.

  • Because of the integration needed between SolarCharge and your EV chargers, we aren't able to promise that our system will work with all EV chargers just yet. 

    If you already have EV chargers installed, let us know the brand and we'll confirm if we are currently able to connect to them.

  • Potential earnings from SolarCharge will depend on a range of factors such as:

    • The size of your rooftop solar array 

    • How many EV chargers you have

    • Your own onsite energy usage (including battery storage and fleet vehicles) 

    • How many cars are parked onsite during the day

    • The price at which you're able to export energy back to the grid 

    If you get in touch we'd be happy to work through what you could reasonably expect.

  • We've designed our cost structure so that you don't need to pay upfront for hosting your EV chargers on SolarCharge. 

    You've already invested significant capital into clean energy assets, so we didn't want cost to be a barrier to making the most of them. 

    Get in touch and we can work through the debits and credits of it all. 

  • Absolutely! Drop us a line and we'd be glad to help out.

For Host Sites

  • Unlike other public chargers, SolarCharge lets you take advantage of locally produced solar energy that is not otherwise needed on site, allowing you to charge your plug-in EV at a much lower cost than traditional public chargers when solar energy is abundant.

    The other key difference is that chargers hosted on SolarCharge are owned by the local businesses and organisations where the chargers are located.  When you charge with SolarCharge, the money you spend charging your plug-in EV through SolarCharge stays in your local community and helps pay off the investment these organisations have made in rooftop solar and ev chargers.

  • SolarCharge chargers have two prices to choose from:

    • Solar on Sale: this is what SolarCharge is all about - low cost charging when solar energy is abundant.  Choose Solar on Sale when you want to top up your car with low cost, locally produced solar energy but don’t mind if there is none available (such as if clouds come over).  The SolarCharge app will show you how much excess solar has been available at that site for each of the last 7 days, so you can get a sense of how likely you are to get any charge, but this is nature - nothing is guaranteed!

    • Need it Now: this is for when you really do need a charge.  Need it Now is at a higher price because the energy will most likely come from the national grid, so the price you pay needs to cover that cost as well.  

    The site hosts choose their own prices to ensure their costs are covered, so pricing will vary by location, but the idea is the the Need it Now price will be comparable to other public AC chargers, while the Solar on Sale price is significantly cheaper.

  • SolarCharge works with AC chargers.  This type of charging is designed to charge where you park, rather than making a specific short stop to quickly charge your car. AC chargers can charge at a maximum rate of 22kw, although in practice the charging rate will depend on the rate at which your EV is able to to accept AC charging (check your owners manual or ask the internet), and, if you have chosen the Solar on Sale option, how much excess energy is being generated on site.

    We recommend plugging into a SolarCharge charger and choosing the Solar on Sale option whenever a charger is available so you can top up your plug-in EV with that low cost, locally produced solar energy!

  • Most sites have the ability to sell excess energy back to the grid.  The price host sites charge has to cover the price they would otherwise get from selling that energy to the grid, plus cover the other costs of the charger like the capital cost, insurance, maintenance etc.

For Plug-in EV Drivers