{"id":15393,"date":"2017-10-05T16:17:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=15393"},"modified":"2024-04-11T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T05:43:44","slug":"charging-electric-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Electric Car?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15662\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15662\" class=\"wp-image-15662 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/car-plug-house.jpg\" alt=\"dude charging his car with solar\" width=\"650\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/car-plug-house.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/car-plug-house-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you are thinking of buying an electric car and have solar then you need to read this.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I recently wrote about how an electric car revolution is coming thanks to declining battery costs and rising environmental concern.\u00a0 I made a promise in that article I would soon write about charging electric cars with rooftop solar and soon is now.\u00a0 Or at least it soon will be.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>One concern that came up in the comments was whether people could fit\u00a0enough panels on their roof to charge an electric car.\u00a0 But the good news is a car that&#8217;s driven the average distance for an Australian passenger vehicle is likely to require less than 8 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/kw-and-kwh-what-is-the-difference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">kilowatt-hours<\/a> a day.\u00a0 This means for most households 2 kilowatts of solar panels will produce more electrical energy over the course of a year than an electric car will consume.\u00a0 Most homes can fit 2 kilowatts of panels on their roof in addition to enough panels to equal or exceed household electricity consumption.<\/p>\n<p>The bad news is 56% of Australian families have 2 or more cars.<\/p>\n<h2>Electric Car Kilowatt-Hour Consumption<\/h2>\n<p>The number of kilometers an electric car can drive per kilowatt-hour of stored electricity varies.\u00a0 Fortunately, it is easy enough to use US Environmental Protection Agency figures to determine range per kilowatt-hour of battery storage<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-1' id='enref-15393-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>1<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 Some examples are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tesla Model 3:\u00a0 7 kilometers<\/li>\n<li>Chevolet Bolt:\u00a0 6.4 kilometers<\/li>\n<li>Mitsubishi i-MiEV:\u00a0 6.3 kilometers<\/li>\n<li>2016 Nissan Leaf:\u00a0 5.7 kilometers<\/li>\n<li>Tesla S sports car:\u00a0 5.3 kilometers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Because electric cars won&#8217;t allow their battery to go completely flat to protect it from deterioration, the real kilometers per kilowatt-hour are slightly higher, but it should make little difference, as modern electric cars don&#8217;t leave much juice in the electric juice pack once they hit zero kilometers of remaining range.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the range figures that come from Europe or Japan, the US ones are reasonably realistic and it is possible for a normal driver to replicate them or even do better if they&#8217;re careful.\u00a0 But if your driving style consists of alternating between stomping on the accelerator and stomping on the brake then I&#8217;m afraid you&#8217;ll do much worse, while if you someone who drives like you are gently making love, then you&#8217;ll probably be arrested and I strongly recommend getting the tinted windows option.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15682\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15682\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/elcar.jpg\" alt=\"70s Smooth Style\" width=\"600\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/elcar.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/elcar-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15682\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It is possible to now buy electric cars that look even better than they did in the 70s. (It&#8217;s impossible to find pants that good though.)<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Charging Losses<\/h2>\n<p>The figures above are for energy that&#8217;s already in a car battery pack.\u00a0 Unfortunately, some energy is always lost squeezing it in there in the first place.\u00a0 Losses occur from changing household AC power into the DC power car battery packs need to charge<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-2' id='enref-15393-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>2<\/a><\/sup> and energy is lost by the batteries themselves as they charge.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/document\/7046253\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This study<\/a> from 2014 found charging a Nissan Leaf was only 84% efficient when slowly charging from a from a standard US power point<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-3' id='enref-15393-3' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>3<\/a><\/sup> and 89% when a home charger that provides more power was used.<\/p>\n<p>As most people are likely to use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/ev-chargers\/\">home charger<\/a> rather than just plug into a power point, 90% efficiency seems like a good rule of thumb for charging, especially since modest improvements in efficiency are likely.\u00a0 Mind you, it will vary depending on the car and situation.\u00a0 I have read some <a href=\"https:\/\/forums.tesla.com\/forum\/forums\/charging-efficiency-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">truly atrocious estimates<\/a> for the Tesla S sports car.\u00a0 Hopefully their new Model 3 will do better, as it is designed for people who are not entirely made of money.<\/p>\n<p>If you buy a car that gets 7 kilometers per kilowatt-hour of battery pack charge and take care to drive reasonably efficiently, then you are likely to get 6.3 kilometers per kilowatt-hour of electricity you charge it with.\u00a0 If you are a bit of a sloppy driver, and I think most of us are, you may only get 5 kilometers per kilowatt-hour.<\/p>\n<h2>Average Kilometers Driven<\/h2>\n<p>The average Australia passenger car is driven around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.budgetdirect.com.au\/car-insurance\/research\/average-kilometers-driven.html#10-average-kilometres-travelled-2010-2020-ref-number2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">14,000 kilometers<\/a> a year, which comes to an average of about 38 kilometers a day.\u00a0 So if you get 5 kilometers of range for every kilowatt-hour of charge you attempt to stuff into your car, you will use almost 8 kilowatt-hours a day.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, you are likely to already know roughly how many kilometers you drive a year, so of course you should base your estimates on that rather than the average.<\/p>\n<h2>The Amount You Drive May Increase<\/h2>\n<p>Once you go electric it&#8217;s possible you will end up driving more kilometers than you used to.\u00a0 This is a claim I&#8217;ve seen more than once on the internet.\u00a0 The two main reasons given are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The lower cost of driving encourages people to drive more.<\/li>\n<li>Electric cars are so pleasurable to drive you won&#8217;t want to stop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I find it hard to believe the first explanation will have much effect on Australians.\u00a0 Sure, an electric car could save over $4 an hour when driving around town, but most of us value our time at a far higher rate than that and so the savings in running costs are not likely to encourage us to spend much extra time behind the wheel.<\/p>\n<p>The second explanation seems more likely to me, as there are definitely people out there who take a great deal of pleasure in the high performance and smooth ride electric cars offer.\u00a0 Personally, I think any form of transport that doesn&#8217;t make your teeth rattle and come with a chance of kidney failure is kind of boring, but I think riding a horse is a sensible thing to do, so I&#8217;m just weird.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Panel Capacity Required<\/h2>\n<p>If you decide you are likely to drive your electric car the Australian average of 38 kilometers a day and estimate you are likely to get 5 kilometers per kilowatt-hour of electricity you use shoving energy into its battery pack, then you will need to charge it with an average of 7.6 kilowatt-hours a day.\u00a0 Most Australian households can expect to get around 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day for each kilowatt of north facing solar panels they have and around 3.4 for east or west-facing panels. So it would take 1.9 kilowatts of north facing solar panels to match the electricity consumption of the car.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15674\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15674\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15674\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/5sunpowerx22.jpg\" alt=\"1.8 kilowatts of panels\" width=\"600\" height=\"164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/5sunpowerx22.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/5sunpowerx22-300x82.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15674\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1.8 kilowatt of solar panels using high efficiency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/sunpower-review.html\">SunPower<\/a> X22 panels. Their total area is 8.1 square meters.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Things are a little worse in Melbourne, which is well known for being the least sunny mainland capital, and there one kilowatt of north facing solar panels will only produce an average of around 3.5 kilowatt-hours per day and around 3 if they face east or west.\u00a0 Hobart is about 8% worse than Melbourne.\u00a0 (Mind you, there is nowhere in Tasmania you can drive that is more than 470 kilometers from Hobart.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15676\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15676\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/270watt.jpg\" alt=\"1.89 kilowatts of 270 watt panels\" width=\"600\" height=\"154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/270watt.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/270watt-300x77.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15676\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1.89 kilowatts of extremely common 270 watt panels. Their total area is 11.6 square meters.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So in general, 2 kilowatts of solar panels should be enough to provide power equal to or greater than the consumption of the average electric car.<\/p>\n<h2>Number Of Cars Per Household<\/h2>\n<p>Using <a href=\"http:\/\/profile.id.com.au\/australia\/car-ownership\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">figures from the 2016 census<\/a> it is possible to estimate the number of cars Australian households have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>8% of households have no car.<\/li>\n<li>36% have 1 car.<\/li>\n<li>37% have 2 cars.<\/li>\n<li>19% have 3 or more cars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The more cars a household has the fewer kilometers each is likely to average per year, but despite this it may be difficult for households with multiple cars to install enough rooftop solar to charge them all and meet household electricity consumption.<\/p>\n<p>It is likely that most multiple car families will just buy one electric car at first, but I have heard of families getting one electric car and then rapidly changing all their vehicles to electric so they don&#8217;t have to fight over who gets to drive the electric car<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-4' id='enref-15393-4' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>4<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n<h2>Many Cars Are Parked At Home During The Day<\/h2>\n<p>Some people seem to be under the impression almost all cars are driven to work during the day and so aren&#8217;t available for charging by home solar, but a large portion of privately owned cars are parked at home for the majority of the day.<\/p>\n<p>This is because many car owners are retired, don&#8217;t work, unfortunately can&#8217;t find work, shift workers, people who work from home, or those who walk, cycle, use public transport to get to work without needing to park their car at the train station, or simply own more cars than they can drive at one time.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, if you are one of the many people who will be driving their electric car to work, the fact that many other cars are parked at home during the day isn&#8217;t of much use to you.\u00a0 But there are good economic and environmental reasons why it may not matter if you send your solar electricity into the grid during the day and charge your car using the grid overnight.<\/p>\n<h2>You May Save More By Charging Overnight<\/h2>\n<p>In Victoria and NSW it is possible for the solar feed-in tariff to be higher than the cost of charging with a controlled load tariff overnight.\u00a0 In these cases charging your car with solar electricity will cost you money.\u00a0 In Victoria these kind of retail electricity plans are very common.\u00a0 In Sydney they are harder to find, but one example is Origin&#8217;s Solar Boost plan<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-5' id='enref-15393-5' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>5<\/a><\/sup> that pays a feed-in tariff of 15 cents while charging 13.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for a controlled load with no daily supply charge.<\/p>\n<p>Although solar households are normally better off with a standard tariff, in these two states it is also possible to have a time-of-use tariff with an off-peak rate that is lower than the feed-in tariff.<\/p>\n<p>It is extremely unlikely that money can be saved this way in other states, but using a controlled tariff can be a lower cost option for those who are either unable to charge their car during the day or for those who don&#8217;t have sufficient surplus solar energy to charge their cars.<\/p>\n<h2>Controlled Load Tariffs Operate For Limited Times<\/h2>\n<p>While controlled load tariffs are lower than standard rates, sometimes much lower, they have the disadvantage of only being available for a limited period of time.\u00a0 Most are for 8 hours overnight, but in Queensland they sometimes turn theirs on during the day thanks to high rooftop solar output.<\/p>\n<p>If your car needs to be charged when the controlled load tariff is not available, it could be plugged into a normal power point for a slow charge or a second charger that is not on a controlled tariff could be used &#8212; but paying for a second charger that is rarely used is an expensive option.\u00a0 Driving to a public charger is also an option.<\/p>\n<h2>There May Be Special Rates For Electric Car Charging<\/h2>\n<p>In the future there may be a wide range of special plans available for charging electric vehicles.\u00a0 They are likely to become common as Australia&#8217;s renewable energy capacity increases, resulting in periods of surplus renewable generation.\u00a0 They may offer a very low cost method of charging electric cars.\u00a0 There is already a special offer by AGL that allows electric cars to be charged for $1 a day.<\/p>\n<h2>AGL&#8217;s $1 A Day Charging<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.agl.com.au\/residential\/energy\/electric-vehicles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AGL&#8217;s electric car plan<\/a> allows an electric car to use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/ev-chargers\/\">home charger<\/a> at any time for only $1 a day.\u00a0 While this sounds like a good deal, it can still be much cheaper to use a controlled load in Victoria and may also be cheaper in NSW, depending on the vehicle&#8217;s average energy consumption.\u00a0 And even in locations where it is cheaper there are some aspects that aren&#8217;t all sweetness and light:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You will need to pay for the installation of a separate meter.<\/li>\n<li>You can only charge a single car with the plan &#8212; which makes me wonder what you can do if a guest rocks up in an electric car.<\/li>\n<li>You can&#8217;t use it as part of running a business.<\/li>\n<li>$1 a day is only fixed for 12 months, after which they can raise it if they wish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_15677\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15677\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15677\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/illbuythatforadollar.jpg\" alt=\"I'll buy that for a dollar!\" width=\"600\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/illbuythatforadollar.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/illbuythatforadollar-300x91.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15677\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Call me a suspicious old fart, but the location of that lettering makes me wonder if that&#8217;s really an electric car at all.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Exported Solar Power Still Provides Environmental Benefit<\/h2>\n<p>If a household installs enough extra rooftop solar capacity to charge their electric vehicle but instead sends it into the grid, it will give the same environmental benefit as if it had been used to charge their car.<\/p>\n<p>This is because if a solar system sends 8 kilowatt-hours of electricity into the grid it will reduce fossil fuel generation by around 8 kilowatt-hours and if their electric vehicle then uses 8 kilowatt-hours charging from the grid at night it will increase fossil fuel generation by around 8 kilowatt-hours.\u00a0 So it evens itself out overall.<\/p>\n<p>So long as a household produces surplus solar electricity equal to the consumption of their electric car, it shouldn&#8217;t make an environmental difference if the car is charged from the grid or from rooftop solar.\u00a0 It is even possible sending solar electricity into the grid during the day and charging at night will result in more environmental benefit by causing greater harm to the economics of coal power, resulting in coal power stations closing down sooner than they would have.<\/p>\n<h2>Charging With Solar<\/h2>\n<p>The simplest way to charge a car using rooftop solar is to plug it in during the day when the sun is shining.\u00a0 Provided the amount of surplus solar electricity being generated is equal to or greater than the amount charging the car, only solar power will be used.\u00a0 However, if the amount of solar power is less then at least some grid power will be used.<\/p>\n<p>How likely a vehicle is to draw on grid power will depend on how much power is used to charge it.<\/p>\n<h2>Level 1, 2, and 3 Charging<\/h2>\n<p>Level 1 charging is the slowest rate that&#8217;s normally possible and uses a normal power point.\u00a0 A car may be limited to the slow Japanese\/US rate of 1.4 kilowatts or it may be able to charge at the European rate of around 2.3 kilowatts.<\/p>\n<p>Level 2 charging involves using a hardwired charger installed in your garage or potentially outside.\u00a0 These vary considerably in price and in how rapidly they can charge, with a power output of 3 to 7 kilowatts being typical.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible for the terms of your car&#8217;s written warranty to require a level 2 charger be installed where the car is kept and this can be a considerable expense, especially if you need to move.<\/p>\n<p>Level 3 charging is rapid charging using dedicated public chargers.\u00a0 Some electric cars are not capable of effectively using these and the larger the car&#8217;s battery the more power they can be charged with at once. These types of chargers are most likely to be used by people traveling long distances and those caught short of charge for some reason. The large majority of charging will be done at home, with some people charging at work if facilities are available.<\/p>\n<h2>Slow Charging Can Suit Solar<\/h2>\n<p>The more slowly a car is charged the easier it can be to charge it with solar power.\u00a0 If your rooftop solar is producing 3 kilowatts of power, your home is using half a kilowatt, and you start level 1 charging your car at 2.3 kilowatts, then all the power provided to your car will be solar.\u00a0 But if you started level 2 charging your car at 3 kilowatts a portion of the power would come from the grid and if you started charging at 7 kilowatts more than half would be grid power.<\/p>\n<p>If it is not possible to keep grid electricity use to a minimum then it can be cheaper to use a controlled load tariff and not use a combination of grid and solar power.\u00a0 One way to attempt to maximize solar power charging is to use a timer so the car will only charge when solar output is likely to be high.\u00a0 Another method is to use a relay that will only turn on the charger when sufficient surplus solar electricity is available.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote about using a Fronius relay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/using-fronius-inverter-smart-meter-relay-make-solar-electric-hot-water\/\">here<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-hot-water-diverter-comparison\/\">SunMate solar diverter<\/a> can also do the same.\u00a0 (But note that only the SunMate&#8217;s threshold power function can supply electricity to charge an electric car.\u00a0 Solar diverter output meant for heating elements definitely cannot be used.)<\/p>\n<h2>Charging On The Weekend<\/h2>\n<p>People who drive their cars to work may want to know if it will be possible to charge them on the weekend using solar power.\u00a0 It could be done, but the battery pack would need to be large enough to last the week and, for anyone who does close to the average amount of driving, their solar system would have to be very large to charge their car over two days.\u00a0 If the weekend was overcast or the car needed to be used during the day it would cause difficulties.<\/p>\n<h2>Using Home Batteries To Charge Car Batteries<\/h2>\n<p>While it is possible to charge a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">home battery system<\/a> during the day with solar power and then charge an electric car in the evening with the stored power, this is very unlikely to be cost effective compared to using a controlled load tariff.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you already have a home battery and you optimistically estimate a replacement will cost 15 cents for each kilowatt-hour it stores and your feed-in tariff is 10 cents, then with losses it would cost around 26 cents per kilowatt-hour to charge your car this way, which is higher than a controlled load tariff.<\/p>\n<p>The place where this will come closest to paying for itself is Perth where the feed-in tariff is a low 7.1 cents and controlled load tariffs are no longer available<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/#en-15393-6' id='enref-15393-6' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(15393)'>6<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n<h2>How Much Solar To Install<\/h2>\n<p>The exact amount of solar energy required to offset the consumption of an electric car will depend on its make, distance driven, and the driving habits of those using it.\u00a0 But, in general, one that is driven the average amount for an Australian passenger vehicle will require just under 2 kilowatts of solar panel capacity to offset its consumption.<\/p>\n<p>But this doesn&#8217;t change the conclusion I arrived at previously that households should install <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/fill-your-roof-with-solar\/\">as much solar as they reasonably can<\/a>.\u00a0 The likely need to power electric cars in the future just makes this more important.\u00a0 And if in the future we are all using robot electric taxis instead of owning our own cars, many people may still wish to install enough solar to offset the energy consumption from their robo-taxi use.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Samurai Jack - Wild Ride Song\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ua8Yk2iLbuM?start=11&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently wrote about how an electric car revolution is coming thanks to declining battery costs and rising environmental concern.\u00a0 I made a promise in that article I would soon write about charging electric cars with rooftop solar and soon is now.\u00a0 Or at least it soon will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[684,46],"tags":[660],"class_list":["post-15393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electric-vehicles","category-solar-panels-2","tag-electric-cars","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Electric Car?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thinking of buying an electric car? Then here&#039;s how to make sure you charge it cheaply and cleanly, even if your car is not at home during the day.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/charging-electric-cars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Electric Car?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thinking of buying an electric car? 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