All Electric Solar Powered Cars

One of the most exciting inventions that the world came across was that of the automobile.  But as most scientists agree on, the burning of fossil fuels is harming our planet and may eventually lead to our extinction as a human race.  With this as the background for new thinking and discovery into solar power and specifically the way we look and use the great invention of the car, let’s all take a good look at how solar might get us all out of a huge mess.

There are many great thinkers and scientists working nearly 24 hours a day on different ways to control and solve the energy issues that face our planet.  Solar panels just might be able to provide a key to long term success.  Below is an equation that will try to unfold some of the mysteries that exist between automobiles that are powered by electricity, and if they make great financial sense or not.

One of the questions that everyone wants to know is, how much electricity and solar power would really be needed to power up, or rather to charge the batteries of an electric vehicle.  The answer is not too difficult to figure out.  We do need to know just a few variables.

Solar and Electric Powered Car Variables:

Kilo Watt Hours per mile:  .4  kwh needed per mile driven

Average miles driven per Month: 1,000

Solar Sunlight hours per day at home: 5

So, let’s figure out the size of a solar system that would be needed to propel a fully electric car 1,000 miles per month.

Here is the math:

1,000miles * .4kwh/mile = 400 kwh needed

400kwh/30= Solar system must produce 13.33 kwh/day

13.33kwh/5 sunlight hours= 2.66 kw per hour of sunlight need to be produced

2.66 (1.2) = 3.2 kW DC solar system would propel an electric car 1000 miles per month

3.2 kW system at $6/watt = $19,000 Total Cost

Minus a 30% Solar tax credit

= $13,440 Net Solar System Cost after Tax Credit

So, if you look at the alternative situation, lets say you buy a car that runs on gasoline.  And you need to buy $4/gallon gas for the year, and the MPG of the car is 30 MPG.  That would mean you would need to buy: $1,600 of gas per year.  If you had the car for 10 years and the gas prices remained the same(which I doubt will be the case) that would be around $16,000.  Of course there is a benefit from the time value of money, but you can at least get an idea for what the options are.

I personally would rather have an electric car, and pay for the electricity to charge it, which might be around $60/month.

Hopefully, we will see some considerable changes and advances in batteries and solar power over the next few years which will make solar powered electric cars mainstream.