When .will I be able to afford a solar powered car?

#1 | POSTED BY DANNI

I drive one now. You can too.

Step 1. Install solar panels on your roof.

Step 2. Buy an electric car.

Step 3. Charge your car at home.

Voila! You now have a solar powered car.

I have invested in solar panels. They work great. Winter and summer. I am on a program called net zero. I zero out my energy costs once a year. Towards the end of summer. I do make more energy in the summer. It makes up for the energy I can't make in winter. I have an app that monitors my energy production so I can see what the best months for energy production are where I live.

I love my big black beautiful solar panels. They have saved me thousands of dollars already. The only thing I need now is a battery backup. Still waiting for the price to come down on that.

But my solar panels will probably outlast me.

It also requires natural gas back up and often doesn't provide power when demand is there.

#5 | POSTED BY BELLRINGER

Guess you have never heard of micro grids.

Daytime energy is cheap. It creates what's called a duck curve. It happens when all the gas generators have to fire up at sundown.

So energy produced at night is more expensive. The micro grids make energy all day store it and then sell it back to power companies at the more expensive rate at night.

Genius yes?

Needs batteries.

POSTED BY LFTHNDTHRDS

Solar energy is free. The panels do cost money to retrieve that free energy. Duh.

I have a small generator for those rare occasions when the power goes out. It's currently much cheaper and easier to maintain than a battery backup.

Where I live in California my power has been stable for years now. Haven't used the generator for at least 2 years now.

"The biggest downside of rooftop solar is it complicates selling your home."

My solar panels have added equity to my home. It's worth more with solar panels. You are guaranteed cheep energy if you live here. It's a positive selling point. It's also why I am not moving anytime soon. I also like cheep energy!

Re 16

Yeah. The system did come with a "lifetime guarantee " but I am hoping to not transfer any contracts if I sell. If I haven't paid them off by the time I sell my home I will just pay it off then. The solar panels will just be a part of the home. If the new owners wish a contract that up to them. That's their option. The only deal the new owners will HAVE to make then is with PG&E. Hopefully.

As I said I am not planning on selling. But you never know what the future might bring.

The simple question is what's your ROI?

#17 | POSTED BY LFTHNDTHRDS

Don't have the numbers right here. The return on investment was about 10-15% depending. The payback period of roughly 6 to 10 years, depending on my energy usage, local electricity rates, and home location. I am thinking it was ten years when I bought it.

But I will tell you my energy costs right now including the monthly cost of the panels is less than I was paying before I had the panels installed. And it only gets better as time goes on. And honestly you can get even much better deals now.

But like I said that all depends on your local cost for energy. Which is always going up and never down.

Re 21

So you have $200 a month to work with.

Take that $200 monthly charge that you HAVE to pay anyway and use it to pay for a loan for some solar panels. Get just enough that will drop your monthly energy cost to zero. ( sorry YOU do the math) And use that $200 a month to pay off the loan. And when the panels are paid off you will actually make a $200 (plus) profit every month forever after. (Depending on the life of the panels of course)

Yer welcome.

Re 24

Of course I should not have to say that you will make much more profit if you can afford to buy the panels outright or get some kind of deal from your state government.