Solar charging allows you to charge your electric vehicle using surplus energy from your solar panels.
This feature works together with the VOOL LMC, which measures power flow at your grid connection point and adjusts charging based on available solar production.
When solar charging is active, your car will charge only when excess solar energy is available.
How solar charging works
When you start a solar charging session:
The charging session starts normally from the VOOL mobile app.
The LMC monitors the energy flow between your site and the grid.
If your solar panels produce more energy than the building consumes, the surplus energy is used to charge your vehicle.
The LMC automatically adjusts the charging current and allowed phases depending on available solar generation.
If solar production becomes too low, charging is temporarily paused.
Charging resumes automatically when enough solar energy is available again.
This allows you to prioritize charging with locally generated renewable energy instead of electricity from the grid.
How to start solar charging
Solar charging must first be enabled for the site.
Step 1 - enable solar charging
You can enable solar charging for the site or LMC in the VOOL portal from the LMC settings.
Once enabled:
the solar charging option becomes available for chargers connected to that LMC
the option will appear in the mobile app when starting a charging session
Step 2 - start a solar charging session
Open the VOOL mobile app
Select your charger
Tap Start charging
Select Solar strategy (charges only when surplus solar energy is available)
Start the session
The LMC will now control charging based on available solar power.
Important things to know
Charging may pause automatically
Solar charging depends on real-time solar production. If production temporarily drops (for example due to clouds), charging may pause and resume later.
A short delay is built in before pausing or resuming charging (5 minutes by default). This prevents frequent start-stop cycles when solar production fluctuates. Because of this, charging may briefly start before the system pauses the session if no surplus energy is available.
Charging speed may vary
Charging speed depends on the amount of surplus solar power available. If only a small amount of surplus energy is available, charging may run at a lower power than during normal charging.
If solar production increases, the LMC will automatically increase the charging current.
Solar charging is controlled by the LMC
The feature operates at LMC level, meaning it affects all chargers connected to the same LMC.
Only one charging program can run at a time
Solar charging cannot run simultaneously with other charging programs such as scheduled charging or price-based charging. This limitation is temporary, and support for solar charging with other programs will be added soon.
Solar charging is not available for public chargers
This feature is intended for private or workplace charging sites.
Installation configuration matters
For solar charging to work correctly, the LMC must measure power at the grid connection point so it can detect when energy is flowing back to the grid.
If the installation does not allow the LMC to measure solar export correctly, the feature may not work as expected.
Charging sessions may appear as zero cost
Since charging is based on locally generated energy, solar charging sessions may appear as zero-cost sessions in the VOOL system.
Solar charging is continuously improving. If you have feedback or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.