Solar-charge your car: EV charging can be aligned with renewables by providing pro-environmental information on a smartboard
For policymakers and grid operators, this provides evidence that non-financial, scalable interventions can shift EV charging behavior to align with renewable supply, reducing carbon emissions.
This field study tested whether real-time prescriptive informational cues on a smartboard can influence EV drivers to charge during periods of high renewable energy availability, finding a behavioral effect that increased charging during renewable-rich periods and was associated with approximately 20% lower CO2-equivalent emissions compared to baseline.
Integrating electric vehicle (EV) charging with renewable energy production is essential for reducing the transport sector's carbon footprint, but effective and scalable strategies to align individual charging behavior with renewable supply remain underexplored. This quasi-experimental field study tests whether real-time prescriptive informational cues can influence EV drivers to charge during periods of high renewable energy availability. A smartboard displaying dynamic "charge green now" and "charge later" signals based on local photovoltaic forecasts and market prices was installed at a semi-residential charging facility in Ghent, Belgium. Hourly charging data (N = 619 days) were analyzed using a difference-in-differences design of lamp states between control-intervention garages at pre-trial and during-trial. Results are consistent with a behavioral effect of the "charge green now" smartboard lamps increasing number of charging operations and the total kWh charged during renewable-rich periods, without financial incentives. Emission modelling estimates that charging at the hours observed during the trial was associated with approximately 20% lower CO2-equivalent emissions compared with baseline charging patterns. These findings suggest that non-financial interventions, i.e., providing salient, real-time prescriptive information, may meaningfully contribute to demand-side flexibility in EV charging. The study offers practical insights for designing non-financial demand response mechanisms and offers a scalable, cost-effective method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of EVs.