Batteries on Wheels / Tax Credits?

[lewisch]

I'm in process of selling my grid-tied home with a 10.16 KW micro-inverter based system and am planning a new system for my new home. For this new system, I want to have the ability to have backup power in case the grid goes down, some am planning on using two Sunny Island inverters or similar.

As I am researching the federal tax credits for the system, I started wondering if I could buy a new fully electric vehicle that would serve as the battery bank for the whole system. I know that batteries can receive the same 30% tax credit if they are integrated into the system, but am wondering if the car could also receive the 30% tax credit if it was an integral component of the system as well.

A layman's review of the tax code says that anything related to the system would be an allowable expense. I've also seen plenty of examples of people using their EVs as batteries for their houses, but I'm wondering if anyone has more insight as to the tax incentives for this approach. I would rather not go to prison for thinking outside the box, but it seems like it could be an innovative storage solution.

Thanks for help.

Charles

[Ampster]

............

As I am researching the federal tax credits for the system, I started wondering if I could buy a new fully electric vehicle that would serve as the battery bank for the whole system. I know that batteries can receive the same 30% tax credit if they are integrated into the system, but am wondering if the car could also receive the 30% tax credit if it was an integral component of the system as well.

A layman's review of the tax code says that anything related to the system would be an allowable expense. I've also seen plenty of examples of people using their EVs as batteries for their houses, but I'm wondering if anyone has more insight as to the tax incentives for this approach.....

Depending on the car you can get a $7,500 tax credit. Trying to integrate the car into a solar PV system to get more than the $7500 creates some interesting questions.

The first question is whether you can find a way to use the car battery as vehicle to grid. What little I know about V2G is that there is a lot of chatter but I have only seen YouTube videos of some prototypes. One of those suggested it was only available for cars using the Chademo charging protocol. In any event I would not use a YouTube video as any authority.

The second question is how to document that the charging of the car is coming from enough solar energy to satisfy the IRS requirement. A tax advisor can tell you what that requirement is.

The third question is how to allocate the personal use of the car or, what percentage of the value of the car could be used for the 30% tax credit. Again this is a question for your tax advisor to help you answer.

The fourth question is whether the Sunny Island inverter could harvest solar energy if it was not attached to the battery when the car was being driven. I tried this with a VW conversion and an Outback Radian and the Radian would not operate without a battery attached. Related to this is the question about the voltage that the Sunny Island expects from a battery and the voltage of the car battery.

There are probably more questions, but those are all that come to mind at the moment.

N.B. a quick Google search of V2G shows that it has become a reality in the UK. I didn't find much for the USA.