Scenario:
I charge the Prius up from Solar at home and drive 30 miles to Blacksburg. I plug the Prius into the grid to recharge for the 30 mile drive home. What if I set up an ultra simple solar charger in Blacksburg to recharge before I go home?
So a simple method is to purchase solar panels, battery and inverter/charger.
- Place 10 solar panels on the grass
- Plug them together and connect to the inverter/charger
- Connect a 5kWh battery and
- Plug in the car to charge
This is relatively inexpensive – Currently $2500 and this price keeps going down.
Analysis
This affordable cost for solar ($2500) is not enough to combat the incredibly low price of gasoline that is subsidized by the government. You would need to drive 43,600 miles to breakeven. Using coal and gas produced electricity you would to drive an incredible 68,800 miles to break even. That assumes that you get ALL of those miles from solar.
Conclusion
There is absolutely zero financial incentive to use free solar energy unless solar charging equipment becomes ridiculously cheaper OR gasoline is priced properly at a much higher level.
- If the solar kit cost $500, that would still be 10,000 miles to breakeven.
- If gasoline cost $30/gallon, then it would only take 4,700 miles to breakeven.
We need to stop using fossil fuel immediately, but we are incentivizing everyone to keep using fossil fuel.
Peter Thompson August 2025
Detailed Calculations
Parts we will need:
195W Solar Panels
Combination Charger and Inverter to turn DC into AC and charge/discharge batteries
A pair of 280Ah batteries to store excess solar and continue charging car when clouds pass.