How EcoFlow empowers home battery owners with live solar forecasts

EcoFlow is a global leader in renewable and clean energy, serving tens of thousands of households worldwide. Their business priority is to power a new, technology-driven, eco-friendly world by providing smart and reliable energy solutions for individuals, families, and society at large.

Ecoflow supports its home solar and storage customers, through an app that helps homeowners understand their energy use and how they use their own solar power. To support this, the EcoFlow product team have integrated high-quality, global solar forecasts using the Solcast API - making tomorrow’s solar production visible, actionable, and reliable - now one of their apps most used features.

The challenge: Turning uncertainty into action

Homeowners with solar and storage want to optimise their power usage, make the most of their solar investment, and minimise their power bills. But everyday consumers can’t always run around turning on appliances when the sun comes out. So Ecoflow wanted to support their customers to maximise renewable utilisation through an accurate forecast, and AI-optimised power planning.

“The main value is turning uncertainty into certainty. Without this feature, users don’t know how much solar energy they will have tomorrow. With the forecast, they have a clear expectation and can plan their usage accordingly. This is especially valuable for users who actively manage their home energy. They can shift big loads to times when solar is abundant.”
— Brook Chen, Product Manager at EcoFlow

Delivering this certainty comes from two key features built on Solcast forecasts - a PV power forecast for homeowner decision making, and as an input to smart scheduling and automation system. As an integrated part of their product, Ecoflow needed a forecast data source that was accurate enough to build a feature they could be reliable to deliver a good customer experience.

Why Solcast? Benchmarking for accuracy and scale

EcoFlow benchmarked several data providers and found that only Solcast could deliver the accuracy, reliability, and scalability needed for a consumer-facing app. Solcast’s API made it possible to serve tens of thousands of users, globally, with the uptime and ease of integration EcoFlow required.

“Accuracy was the most important factor – Solcast performed well in our comparisons. Some required new commercial models that were not practical for us. Solcast, by contrast, already had services aligned to residential and consumer needs.”

— Brook Chen, Product Manager at EcoFlow

Building the solution: From data to dashboards & automations

EcoFlow integrated the Solcast Live & Forecast API to power a 3-day solar generation forecast in the EcoFlow app’s “PV Forecast” widget. The forecast combines Solcast’s irradiance data with asset data - orientation, angle, rated power, and historical performance - to model each home’s solar output. This data feeds both the user dashboard and EcoFlow’s smart energy management system (EMS), enabling Ecoflow to optimise automated EV charging, appliance scheduling, and VPP and demand response programs.

What changed for EcoFlow users?

• Visibility: Users can now see tomorrow’s solar production and plan accordingly.
• Optimisation: The forecast feature helps users optimise their power usage, planning their use (EVs, heat pumps, dishwashers) to times of forecast solar generation.
• Adoption: The “PV Forecast” widget quickly became one of the most-used features in the EcoFlow app.

What’s next for EcoFlow?

Looking ahead, Ecoflow is exploring higher-resolution forecast moving from hourly to 15 - or even 5 - minute intervals to provide even more precise insights for users. The company is also expanding its virtual power plant (VPP) pilots in Australia, with the potential for a broader rollout in other markets.

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Visit: EcoFlow Oasis

See: Solcast Forecast Data

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