Solar powered roadster turning heads in SWFL

[TEG]

Solar powered roadster turning heads in SWFL - ABC-7.com WZVN News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida

[Iz]

That Roadster is earning kudos everywhere! Good article except for this:

At full charge, the car will travel 160 miles.

[mpt]

Good on him!

I'm starting to leg into solar; some of these new thin-film panels have amazing output.

I'll wager though that he's not actually charging the Roadster but pushing power into his local grid and then charging his car at night which is, net-net a better solution as power is scarce during the day and his solar contribution is significant and used 100% during the day.

[vfx]

The report said he is the only one powering on Solar. I can name 4 in my immediate area.

[Iz]

There have been several blogs on the TM site from owners who use solar. Must be countless others that also do the same.

[shark2k]

The report said he is the only one powering on Solar. I can name 4 in my immediate area.

Thanks VFX, I was just gonna post asking about that. I would have been surprised if he was the only one that had solar panels as now that I think of some members here that have roadsters might have even mentioned they have solar panels.

@MPT: Not to get OT, but I've read that those thin-film panels lose their overall output fairly quickly and you need more of them to get the same output as traditional panels. Just an FYI.

-Shark2k

[DisneylandIsHome]

I'm sure there are many Roadster owners that have solar powering their cars. Within the next month, we will have it on our house.

[TEG]

I have 4kW solar on my house.
Lots of other EV drivers I know have solar as well.
It is the way to go if you have property with good sun exposure.

[James]

I know of two Tesla owners in the Seattle area that have significant solar systems on their homes.

One is 6 KW and the other was something like 12 KW to power a ranch. They were on the local solar home tour.
Those are super sized home solar systems.

Just to put that in perspective, the average home solar system is 2 KW to 3 KW.

[vfx]

A guy here has 22KW on his home. He sized his system so he could show a loss of income. That is, in order to sue the power company he had to show he was creating power that the power company was using the power and charging others for it but not paying him for it. His lawsuit was the basis for AB920.

And to get back on the PV>EV part of the thread, on principle, he will only charge his EV at home on his Solar.