A big part of why many homeowners get solar panels installed on their properties is to offset high electricity bills, especially during the summer months when energy usage rises sharply. While many types of solar panels can cover up to 100% of the electricity consumption needs of a household, you might still have to rely on the energy provided by your utility company to meet the excess demand. In the best-case scenario, the utility bills you receive as a result of this usage should be minimal.
However, from time to time, you might notice a spike in your electricity bills, even with your solar panels working. There are numerous reasons for this, from increased energy usage on your part to a malfunction in the system. There can also be external factors that are just beyond your control. That said, the sooner you look into what’s causing the spike and address the issue, the sooner you can bring down your utility bills and continue enjoying the benefits of your solar system installation. Below, we’ll take a look at five of the most common reasons for high electricity bills, despite having a solar system.
Changing energy consumption patterns
Often, after homeowners install solar panels on their property, they stop keeping track of their energy consumption. Whether it’s plugging in and using appliances and lights that are not needed or cranking up the air conditioner, many of these habits can, unsurprisingly, cause your electricity needs to rise.
Even if you’ve been careful about your energy usage, changes in your living situation or the addition of new appliances to your household might be what’s causing a spike in your electricity bill. For instance, guests visiting you during the holidays naturally add to energy needs. The same goes for if you or another resident shift to a remote work situation. Additionally, if you don’t like the heat, staying indoors for more hours can significantly increase your energy consumption too.
While some of these changes are temporary, it’s a good idea to take a look at your energy consumption over a few weeks and try to spot new habits or inefficiencies in your appliances that might be running up your electricity usage. Taking steps to be more mindful about your energy consumption and getting appliances, like your air conditioner and refrigerator, serviced can help keep your utility bills under control.
Weather-related factors
The weather has a big impact on how well your solar panels function. If you’ve been getting a lot of rain, or it’s been getting darker earlier in the day, your solar system’s efficiency will naturally take a dip. Cool, sunny days are what’s ideal for your solar panels to function at their peak capacity. On the other hand, intense heat, cloudy skies, snow, and even excess humidity can reduce a solar system’s efficiency. If the weather conditions haven’t been conducive for a while, you may be relying more on traditional sources to meet your energy consumption demands. This, in turn, can cause an increase in your electricity bills.
The best way to keep weather-related factors from affecting your solar system’s energy production capacity is to install the panels in a sunny location. However, if your roof isn’t positioned in a way that gets maximum sun exposure, consider using portable solar panels that can be moved around your property to capture more sunlight. Additionally, you might want to invest in a few energy-saving lighting options, so you’re not using as much electricity.
Malfunctioning or dirty solar panels
Solar panels usually have a pretty solid build quality, given that they’re expected to work outdoors and hold up to the elements. However, it’s possible for the panels to malfunction and even potentially break due to a number of reasons, from debris falling on the surface to the effects of corrosion.
If your electricity bills have recently risen while your electricity consumption has remained the same, it’s worth checking if your panels are working as they should. If you don’t see any obvious signs of damage on the panels, check if the breaker switches have tripped. If all those seem fine, check whether your solar inverter is functioning normally. Typically, a green light means it’s working fine, whereas a red, yellow, or blinking light indicates an issue. Your manual should have more information about how to identify potential issues. Since the inverter is an important part of a solar system, addressing any problems related to the inverter will help.
Another thing you should do is check if the solar panels are clean. MIT News reported that the accumulation of dust on solar panels can reduce the output of the panels by up to 30% in just one month, which means dirty panels might just be what’s causing your electricity bills to rise. The good news is that cleaning solar panels is fairly easy and should result in better output.
Size of your solar system
How many solar panels you need to power your home will depend on your energy needs. If your current solar system is too small for your needs and is not offsetting 100% of your consumption, your electricity bills might fluctuate. In this case, the easiest thing to do is add more solar panels to the roof. This way, your consumption will be met by the increased output provided by the new panels.
If your roof cannot accommodate more panels, consider purchasing portable solar panels. Alternatively, you might want to purchase a solar battery. Keep in mind that your solar panels generate maximum energy when the sun is the brightest, and this usually happens between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for east-facing panels, and later in the day for west-facing panels. If you’re not using enough energy during these hours and are using more energy in the evenings or at night, a solar battery might come in handy since it can store some of the surplus energy that is generated during the peak production hours. This can help you use solar energy continuously throughout the day.
Incorrect meter reading
If none of the above-mentioned reasons explain why your energy bills are spiking, it’s worth checking if the culprit is a faulty meter that’s causing a billing inaccuracy. Billing inaccuracies can have a number of causes, but if you’ve already determined that none of your appliances are malfunctioning and using up more energy, you’ll want to check if the utility meter is working. If you just moved into your home, it’s also possible that the meter wasn’t installed or activated properly.
If you suspect that your meter is malfunctioning, call your utility company or an electrician to inspect the meter. A professional will be able to test the meter and identify if it’s working normally or is malfunctioning and causing incorrect meter readings. If it’s faulty or broken, there’s a good chance you’ll receive a refund from your energy company for any overbilling that the meter caused, and this should address the spike in your electricity bills.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that persistent high pressure in the upper atmosphere led to irradiance as high as 30% above normal, and new records for solar generation and temperature in North America in mid-February.
A warm end to winter hit most of North America this February. In the west, during February mild air from the Pacific banked up clouds and depressed irradiance by 10-20%, according to analysis completed using the Solcast API. In the east, persistent high pressure in the upper atmosphere led to irradiance as high as 30% above normal, and new records for solar generation and temperature
A clear east/west divide is present in the irradiance anomaly this month. A strong low pressure system sat further east than normal over the Atlantic which brought calm, drier and sunny conditions to the Eastern U.S. and Mexico. Sunnier than normal conditions delivered 20-30% more irradiance than normal from Texas to New England. On the west coast however, high pressure was further west over the Pacific, so that coastal low pressure systems pulled moist air from equatorial regions, leading to increased clouds, blocking irradiance.
Clear skies and higher than normal irradiance will have benefited both large and small scale, solar producers. Residential ‘behind the meter’ solar performed strongly this February all over the East Coast. Solcast’s Grid Aggregation model for NYISO shows residential solar peaked at 3.52GW, and saw 23% more solar generation than last year after adjusting for capacity increases. By contrast, CAISO’s residential solar generation was down 12% on the long term capacity-adjusted average.
Utility scale generation in ERCOT also hit and surpassed their generation peak record, hitting 17.2GW on February 20th. A 50.1% increase in peak generation in February 2023, is mostly a function of capacity increases in the last year.
But it wasn’t just grid performance breaking recent records, temperature records were broken across the country, with the average temperature, more than 4 degrees above normal. Killeen in Texas saw a peak temperature of 38 C (100 F), and Jacaranda trees in Mexico City have been in full bloom all month, 6-8 weeks earlier than normal. Despite the heat further south, areas in Eastern Canada saw significant snowfall caused by a low pressure system stalling over the area, drawing in continuous cold air from the Atlantic. This caused one of the heaviest snowfall events in 20 years, blanketing parts of Nova Scotia with more than a meter of snow.
This extreme weather is reflective of an overall pattern being seen globally, as February 2024 was Earth’s warmest month on record for the 9th consecutive month.
The American Clean Power Association (ACP) has released its Clean Power Annual Market Report, highlighting a landmark year for U.S. clean energy with more capacity installed in 2023 than in any previous year.
The industry added a total of 33.8 GW of new utility-scale clean energy projects, surpassing by 12.5% the previous annual installation record set in 2021. Solar and storage additions led the charge, breaking previous records for both technologies. Clean power accounted for most of the new power capacity installed.
The U.S. now has 262 GW of clean energy powering its grid, and as a result, the nation now generates 16% of its electricity from wind and solar. Clean energy can be found in 93% of congressional districts and in all 50 states. The ACP says future development looks promising, with the report finding project pipelines are reaching historic levels.
“Clean energy is fundamental to the American economy, accounting for more than 75% of all new power brought online last year. We are generating clean energy in every state and nearly every congressional district,” said ACP CEO Jason Grumet. “It has been a banner year for storage and solar, and there is real excitement over the 123 newly announced manufacturing facilities that will bring economic development to communities across the country. But despite these achievements, we need to make even greater strides to meet our shared energy security and net-zero goals. ACP will continue to advocate for improvements to siting, permitting, and planning processes to accelerate the deployment of clean energy.”
Highlights from the Clean Power Annual Market Report 2023 include:
Solar, wind, and storage accounted for 77% of all new power capacity installed.
Utility-scale solar installations soared to 19.6 GW, with utility-scale projects leading the expansion.
Energy storage capacity nearly doubled as developers connected 7.9 GW to the grid.
Investment in domestic clean energy manufacturing has grown significantly, spurred by federal tax incentives.
The development pipeline is up over 25% year-over-year to 170 GW, indicating robust future clean power growth.
Clean energy is found in 93% of congressional districts and in all 50 states.
Utility-scale solar energy — bolstered by favorable federal policies and decreasing costs — experienced nearly 20 GW installed across 44 states. Texas and California led the country in solar additions, bringing 5.9 GW and 2.3 GW of new solar online respectively. More than half of the 94 GW of solar in operation at the end of 2023 came online between 2020 and 2023. And more is on the way, with over 92 GW in the pipeline.
Battery storage demonstrated near-exponential growth by almost doubling installed capacity with around 8 GW installed. This brings the total operating capacity to 17 GW. California and Texas accounted for nearly three-quarters of the year’s storage additions, but a total of fifteen states added new storage capacity in 2023 (AZ, CA, CO, HI, MA, MN, NC, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, TX, VA, VT). The rapid growth of storage was supported by a new tax credit for standalone storage, the boom in solar power, the value storage delivers during peak demand and times of grid stress, and a decline in prices for key battery materials, ACP said.
The land-based and offshore wind sectors faced challenges in 2023, delivering 6.4 GW of wind power capacity—the slowest year for new wind installations in a decade. This slowdown was attributed largely to policy uncertainty, high costs of capital, long permitting processes, siting barriers, and a challenging environment for building new transmission, ACP said.
Corporate buyers are playing an important role in driving up clean energy demand by purchasing clean power for their operations. The top three commercial and industrial (C&I) buyers in 2023 were Amazon, Meta, and Google. Meta leads as the top buyer of operating clean power, while Amazon leads with the most total clean power capacity contracted.
I’ve added electrification predictions for 2024 to my customary set of solar and storage predictions. Electrification incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are already starting to drive demand for heat pumps and electrical upgrades, just as tax credits accelerated the solar and EV markets in the past. My better half pointed out that 2024 predictions are much tougher than 2023 recaps. Nevertheless, here I go sticking my neck out again with these 10 predictions for 2024.
1. EVs will be equipped with integrated 240-volt generators
More EV manufacturers will follow Ford’s and Tesla’s lead with integrated 240-volt generators in their vehicles. These generators will enable owners to use those huge batteries on wheels to power their home, both for ordinary daily use as well as during increasingly frequent blackouts. Clever drivers will learn to charge their vehicles inexpensively during the day, and then use their vehicle’s batteries to power their homes during peak electric times during the evening.
2. Heat pump sales will surge by 25%
Heat pump HVAC and water heater system sales will surge by 25% in 2024, limited only by equipment supplies and contractor resources. Even though IRA rebates for these systems are still not available due to DOE and state energy office delays, customers are buying because of the market awareness created by the IRA. Customers are taking advantage of currently available tax credits and local incentives for this equipment — which in some cases cover more than half the total installation cost.
3. Fewer than half of new clean energy manufacturing plants will be completed
The IRA provides strong incentives for EVs, solar, storage and heat pump manufacturing in the United States. However, rules for applying these incentives to both manufacturing facilities and projects are complicated. Although there have been over 60 manufacturing plants announced, fewer than half will actually go into full-scale production once the incentive and supply chain details are understood.
4. Utilities in other states will follow California’s lead to end net metering
Credit: Titan Solar Power
The end of net metering in California will energize utilities in other states to limit the growth of rooftop solar and storage. The dirty secret is that utilities are permitted to use ratepayer funds to influence state politicians to eliminate competition from rooftop solar – and basically enforce their monopoly. Laws to restrict utility lobbying are uniquely difficult to pass since utilities spend tens of millions of dollars to lobby against these same laws.
5. Residential solar revenues in California will plunge by 50%
Residential rooftop solar revenues in California will plunge by 50% in 2024 compared to 2023. Even though California electric rates continue to increase at over 10% per year, the state is unlikely to recover its solar leadership position until net-metering policies are restored. Customer rage from skyrocketing electric bills and the end of NEM will backfire on politicians who accepted millions in contributions from utility interests over the past six years. Relying on the utility gravy train to get re-elected will no longer work for politicians once voters link their electric bills with the lobbying money their state representatives raked in.
6. A national-scale solar installation company will file for bankruptcy
Continued financial losses at national-scale solar installation and finance companies will result in at least one high-profile bankruptcy. The finance business model for large-scale residential solar companies is very sensitive to interest rates. Solar finance companies borrow money for PPAs and leases for relatively short terms to fund their growth and then get paid back over the much longer term of the PPA or lease. When interest rates spiked, they were not able to maintain their profits due to lower revenue and higher borrowing costs. Interest rates will decline significantly in 2025 at which time the solar finance market will bounce back, especially since average electric rates will be higher and equipment costs will be lower.
7. Tesla will claw its way into the U.S. inverter business
The inverter duopoly of SolarEdge and Enphase will turn into a tri-opoly (new word, not the board game) with the entrance of Tesla’s hybrid string inverter. Tesla will muscle into the inverter business with the combination of its brand name advantage and lower system costs – even though the performance of their systems will be lower without module-level electronics.
8. VPPs and V2G will not gain traction
Utility-sponsored tests of virtual power plants (VPPs) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) will continue but will not gain traction without large customer incentives. The underlying friction of these business models is that utilities are unwilling to compensate customers for the full value of the battery systems – for the simple reason that utilities generate higher profits if these battery assets are owned by the utility itself rather than the customers. The paltry amount of money that utilities are willing to pay for customer-sited resources is insufficient to cover customer costs of their batteries, not to mention installer, manufacturer and aggregator costs to support these systems.
9. The residential battery system business will consolidate
The crowded residential battery system business will consolidate down to four national-scale players. Batteries by themselves are relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, releasing a complete and fully UL-approved battery and software system is expensive. But that’s just the beginning — building out a national sales and service organization costs a fortune. New battery system entrants — without the investment and army of people that it takes to support customers — will not succeed.
10. It’s game-over for fossil fuels
COP28 showed the world that it is “game over” for fossil fuels. Economics is the simple reason for this transition, although it will take another generation for the transition to be completed. Energy from solar and wind is already much less expensive than fossil fuels. These renewable energy sources are being deployed at an accelerating rate, while at the same time technologies that clean up fossil fuel emissions — such as carbon sequestration and storage, and direct air capture — struggle to pencil out economically. Despite the billions of dollars that fossil fuel companies spend to extend their businesses and continue to pollute, they are destined to become extinct just as their dinosaur ancestors.
Solar panels are slowly becoming the new normal, but plenty of questions come with the most accessible form of renewable energy. Are plug-in solar panels any good? How much maintenance do they need? And, most importantly, how long do solar panels last?
There are plenty of hidden costs of home solar panels, but thankfully, frequent replacements aren’t something you’ll need to worry about. According to Sunrun, an industry-leading manufacturer, solar panels are made to last more than 25 years, with many from as early as the 1980s still working today. This Old House corroborates this statistic, saying that while it’s hard to gauge precisely how long solar panels last, many come with 25 to 30-year warranties, ensuring they’ll stick around for the long haul.
So, although you may need to fork over extra cash upfront, installing solar panels is a worthy investment for any household looking to cut back on energy costs. Given that they’ll last you a few decades, you won’t need to constantly spend money to maintain solar panels, and you can do a few things to make them last even longer.
How to make sure your solar panels last long
Solar panels aren’t cheap, and you’ll want your investment in green energy to last as long as possible. Thankfully, they aren’t very fragile either, so barring any unforeseen natural disaster or randomly accurate lightning strike, your solar panels will last you a few decades. But there are a few things you can do to ensure you get the most out of your investment.
First, you want to keep your solar panels clean and clear of any debris. While dirt, grime, pollen, and leaves won’t destroy your panels, large buildups could impact their efficiency. Usually, rain will be enough to get rid of most of these, but regular cleaning with a broom or hiring a professional team will secure your solar panels a long lifespan.
You should also frequently monitor the usage of your solar panels. Sometimes, after a cleaning, solar panels can develop random electrical problems, so if you notice a spike in your utility bill, it’s best to call a professional to check on them. And if your systems have a shut-off switch, make sure it doesn’t accidentally get turned off by yourself, your children, or anyone else. Although useful, if you, your children, or someone else accidentally shut off your solar panels, you likely won’t notice it immediately, which could result in wasting built-up energy generation.
There has been no shortage of bleak climate news this year: unprecedented global heat fueled deadly extreme weather events, scientists issued dire warnings that next year may be worse still, and the world’s carbon pollution kept rising.
But amid the gloom, there have also been signs of progress. Renewable energy records have been set, the world celebrated one of its greatest environmental wins and countries made a cautious but historic step towards a fossil fuel-free future.
Here are five reasons to be hopeful.
A surge in renewable energy
As the need to rapidly wean off planet-heating fossil fuels becomes increasingly urgent, there have been some clean energy bright spots around the world.
On Halloween, Portugal started a record-breaking streak. For more than six days straight, between October 31 to November 6, the nation of more than 10 million people relied solely on renewable energy sources — setting an exciting example for the rest of the world.
The year 2023 is on track to see the biggest increase in renewable energy capacity to date, according to the International Energy Agency.
China, the world’s biggest climate polluter, has made lightning advances in renewables, with the country set to shatter its wind and solar target five years early. A report published in June found that China’s solar capacity is now greater than the rest of the world’s nations combined, in a surge described by the report’s author, Global Energy Monitor, as “jaw-dropping.”
It can’t be ignored, however, that China also ramped up its coal production this year, turning to the fossil fuel as devastating heat waves increased energy demand for air conditioning and cooling, and as persistent drought in the country’s south impacted hydroelectric supplies, which are reliant on sufficient rainfall.
Hopes were raised that the country’s coal production will peak and come downsoon, when China and the US in November announced they would resume cooperation on climate change, pledging a major ramp-up of renewable energy, specifically to replace fossil fuels.
A climate deal that targets fossil fuels
After more than two weeks of fraught negotiations, the COP28 climate summit in Dubai concluded in December with nearly 200 countries making an unprecedented commitment to move away from fossil fuels.
While the agreement fell short of requiring the world to phase out coal, oil and gas — which more than 100 countries had supported — it did call on countries to “contribute” to a “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.” This marked the first time that all fossil fuels, the main drivers of the climate crisis, were targeted in a COP agreement.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who presided over the negotiations, called the agreement “historic,” adding that the deal represented “a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies.”
Howimpactful this deal ultimately is will depend on what countries do next to implement it. Many experts warned of loopholes that could leave the door open to a continued expansion of fossil fuels.
But that a deal was struck at all on fossil fuels was widely welcomed seen as a breakthrough.
“We got people to do things they haven’t done before,” US climate envoy John Kerry told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after the summit, describing it as a “historic success.”
Plummeting deforestation in Brazil
After years of soaring deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, there was good progress this year in reducing forest destruction.
The Amazon is the world’s biggest rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to curbing climate change. It acts a carbon sink that sucks in planet-heating pollution from the atmosphere. When forests or trees are destroyed, they emit greenhouse gases. Deforestation and land degradation is responsible for at least one-tenth of the world’s carbon pollution.
Deforestation in Brazil fell by 22.3% in the 12 months through July, according to data from the national government, as President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva started to make progress on his pledge to rein in the rampant forest destruction that occurred under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Marcio Astrini, head of advocacy group Climate Observatory, described it as an “impressive result” that “seals Brazil’s return to the climate agenda.”
Still, Brazil’s deforestation rate remained nearly twice that of its all-time low in 2012. Around 9,000 square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed in the period. There’s a long way to go to meet Lula’s pledge to reach zero deforestation by 2030.
The ozone layer is healing well
The Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover completely within decades, a UN-backed panel of experts announced in January, as ozone-depleting chemicals are phased out across the world.
The ozone layer protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays, but since the 1980s, scientists have warned about a hole in this shield due to ozone-harming substances, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which wereused widely in refrigerators, aerosols and solvents.
International cooperation has helped stem the damage. A deal known as the Montreal Protocol, which came into force in 1989, began the phase-out of CFCs. The ozone layer’s subsequent recovery has been hailed as one of the world’s greatest environmental achievements.
If global policies stay in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 levels by 2040 for most of the world, the assessment found. For polar areas, the timeframe for recovery is longer: 2045 over the Arctic and 2066 over the Antarctic.
A study published in November, however, cast some doubt on this progress. The paper, published by Nature Communications, found that a hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic “has not only remained large in area, but it has also become deeper throughout most of the Antarctic spring.” But some scientists were skeptical of the study’s findings, saying it relied on too short a time period to draw conclusions about the layer’s long-term health.
Electric vehicle sales surge
The popularity of electric vehicles has surged this year, with American sales at an all-time high. People in China and Europe are snapping up EVs in large numbers as well.
Electric vehicles — which are better for the planet than gas and diesel-powered cars when they run on renewable energy sources — are key to decarbonizing road transport, which is responsible for around one-sixth of planet-heating pollution globally, according to the International Energy Agency.
Electric vehicles accounted for about 8% of all new vehicles sales in the US during the first half of 2023, according to the report. In China, EVs accounted for 19% of all vehicle sales, and worldwide, they made up 15% of new passenger vehicle sales.
EV sales in Europe were up 47% in the first nine months of 2023, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA). However, car dealers have warned that sales are dropping off as consumers wait for cheaper models, expected in two to three years’ time.
In order to make your EV green-energy approved, you’ll need to charge it using a renewable energy source. Solar panels are one way to accomplish that.
Charging your electric car at home will only increase your electric usage unless you add another renewable energy source, such as solar panels, to offset it.
For the eco-conscious EV driver, an electric vehicle is only as clean and green as the source of electricity charging its battery.
That’s because EVs plugged into the grid can either be powered by “dirty” sources such as fossil fuels such as coal, or from “clean” renewable energy that comes from sources such as solar, hydro or wind power. With many utilities, it’s likely to be a mix of renewables and fossil fuels. The best way to ensure your EV is actually powered by renewable energy is to connect your home’s EV charger to a solar energy system or use a public charger also sourced by solar panels.
Forget the statistics, it’s in plain sight and we can’t ignore it. EV charging stations are becoming the norm, automakers are making headlines as they invest in new EV technology, and rooftop solar panels are also becoming commonplace to see.
Even with the upswing in EVs and home solar systems, switching from a combustion car to an electric vehicle, however, can be a complicated decision with considerations conventional car drivers don’t have to worry about, like installing a charger in your garage. Adding solar panels to the equation adds even more layers of complexity to an already significant investment.
Here’s what you need to know about powering your home and EV with solar panels and how many you’ll need if you do.
Why use solar panels to charge an electric vehicle (EV)?
There are some less obvious benefits to home solar charging in addition to watching free, clean electrons pulled from the sky streaming into your car’s battery.
Most home EV chargers treat your car like any other appliance that needs to be plugged in and charged overnight. Actually, it’s more like a quite needy appliance that requires a particular current (DC) and lots of it as quickly as possible, which can mean operating at high voltage.
All of this increases strain on the grid and can add a load to your home’s electrical system, especially if your wiring is older or in need of upgrading. In the worst cases of neglect or poor electrical work, it can even be dangerous.
Using solar panels to charge an EV actually streamlines the charging process because both systems speak the same electrical language, in a way.
As Wyldon Fishman, founder of the New York Solar Energy Society, explained, solar panels and electric vehicles both operate with direct current (DC), meaning there’s no need to install an inverter between your panels and EV, although a charge controller is still imperative to have in the circuit. DC can also run at lower, safer voltages.
Relying on solar panels rather than the grid to charge your electric vehicle also means not having to worry about being stuck at home with a dead battery if the power goes out, especially if you opt to pair your panels with a battery or other solar storage.
A home’s energy set up could consist of solar panels, battery storage, inverter and an EV charger. Depending on the consumption, size, efficiency and how many panels you get, this equipment could accommodate all or some of this home energy production. – Getty
How much energy is needed to charge your EV at home?
First, consider your goals for your solar charging system. Do you want to charge your car using your solar panels, and will you primarily be charging overnight? If so, you’re going to need to install a battery or other storage system.
In most cases, you’re likely to have a solar system that’s hooked into the grid as well as your home, perhaps with a connected battery for emergency backup, or not.
If this is your scenario, it could be helpful to know how much of your existing solar output the rest of your home is consuming. If you never pay a utility bill or your utility bill is primarily for nighttime or cloudy days (when your solar panels aren’t at work), this means your existing solar system is probably producing more than you need and the extra is being fed into the grid or a battery or both. Some of this excess energy could be used to charge your EV, meaning you will need fewer solar panels to drive a fully solar-powered car.
Once you’ve got an idea of whether you’re running a solar surplus, the next step is determining how much additional demand an EV will add to your system.
How many solar panels will I need to charge just my EV?
First, consider how much you typically drive in a day. Put simply, the more you drive, the more wattage you’re likely to need in panels.
Here’s the steps to figuring out how your average daily energy needs to power an EV.
Step 1. Determine how many kilowatt-hours your EV uses per mile. The EPA and US Department of Energy’s fueleconomy.gov site lists the estimated efficiency of all electric cars in kWh per 100 miles; simply divide by 100 for a per-mile estimate.
Step 2. Multiply your EV’s kWh/mi by the number of miles you anticipate you drive on an average day. (You can get your average daily miles by observing your driving habits for a few days or by dividing your annual observed mileage by 365). This gets you the total number of kilowatt-hours you’ll need to produce to power your daily driving.
Step 3. You can then divide the EVs needed kilowatt-hours by the number of peak sun hours you can expect to receive at your location each day.
Step 4. The final figure should give you the size of your ideal EV-charging solar array in kilowatts.
Step 1. According to fueleconomy.gov, it averages 24 kWh/100 mi or 0.24 kWh/mi.
Step 2. We’ll also use the EPA’s average mileage estimate of 15,000 annual miles, which works out to around 41 miles per day.
Step 3. 0.24 kWh/mi x 41 miles = 9.86 kWh daily power EV usage
Step 4. 9.86 kWh / 4 peak sun hours = 2.4 kW (This is how much solar energy in kW you will need to charge your EV).
Step 5. We will use a solar panel wattage of 410W, such as the Q.PEAK Duo Black from Qcells, to calculate the number of panels needed for the Hyundai Ioniq 6. Convert the 410W to kilowatts by dividing by 1,000 (0.41 kW).
Step 6. EV production needed to charge the Hyundai Ioniq 6 (in kWh per day) / energy needed per Q.PEAK Qcells solar panel) = number of solar panels needed. 2.4 kW / 0.41 kW = 5.85 solar panels
In this example, six Qcells solar panels are needed to accommodate the energy needs of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 with average driving habits. Six Qcells solar panels don’t accommodate the rest of the home’s energy consumption.
Meanwhile, at the other extreme, dropping the Ford F-150 Lightning‘s 48 kWh/100 mi into the same formula yields a daily energy use of 19.68 kWh and a 4.9 kW solar requirement, doubling the Qcells solar panels needed to 12 panels.
If that’s too much math, Fishman simply recommends putting around eight to 12 solar modules on a canopy that you can use as a solar carport.
“It’s about 2.5 kilowatts that you need for a canopy. You might go a little more, but that’s all you need,” Fishman said.
We’ve seen others in the industry put the figure at closer to 3 kW, but if you’re unsure, you can run through all the math for your situation.
How many solar panels will I need to power my whole home?
This basically comes down to figuring out your home’s total energy needs and then designing a solar array that can meet those needs.
There’s a lot of things to consider to determine both sides of this equation, and CNET goes into further detail on the subject here. Adding EV chargers to your home simply means adding more energy use to both sides of the equation.
Most reputable solar companies will help you work out your energy needs and propose a solution that they will surely be willing to install for you. But doing the math on your own as well can help you make the most informed choice when it comes to picking an installer and assisting in designing a system that meets your needs best.
Don’t forget that there are other things you might want to do before even beginning to consider solar for your home. Making energy efficiency improvements can go a long way toward shrinking your overall needs and thereby shrinking the size of the solar system you require.
Is it worth it to add more solar panels to accommodate an EV?
Adding more panels to your existing solar system or to one that you’re planning is one way to power all your home’s energy needs, including your EV. But it isn’t necessarily the only way to charge your EV. You can also build a stand-alone off-grid system that’s dedicated to just your car.
Fishman recommends building a carport topped with solar panels at just the right tilt to get a good amount of sun on average, based on your location on the globe.
“A carport is fixed at latitude,” she explained. “So if you’re at 42 degrees above the Equator, then your tilt for your solar modules is 42 degrees.”
Which comes first: A solar panel or EV purchase?
If you’re dedicated to renewable energy and kicking fossil fuels to the curb, it makes sense to have your solar system all setup before you spring for the EV so you never have to worry about charging your car from dirtier energy sources that mix with renewables on the grid.
But the reality for many people will be that an EV and home solar energy are two very costly investments. A car or EV tends to be a personal purchase that we spend a lot of time in, whereas energy is a readily available commodity that we tend to think about less. So it wouldn’t be surprising for people to prioritize a flashy new EV over adding solar panels to a home that already has access to electricity via the grid.
Ultimately, it comes down to your priorities and your situation. Maybe your utility is good about incorporating solar into its energy mix via its own solar farm systems, renewable energy credits or offering a community solar program. If so, you might have fewer qualms with plugging in your car at night, no matter how many panels are on the roof.
After Hurricane Maria devastated the island, residents launched community-based solar projects to keep the lights on. Activists call it an “energy insurrection.”
Hurricane Maria knocked down power lines across Puerto Rico. Some remote villages were without electricity for nearly a year.
On Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and devastated the island’s aging and inefficient power grid.
Air conditioning couldn’t work. Water couldn’t be pumped to higher floors. Hospitals couldn’t maintain lifesaving machinery. Diesel and propane generators helped, but they’re costly and unwieldy and pump noxious fumes into the air.
It would be late November before more than half the island’s 3.4 million residents had electricity. And some remote areas were without power for nearly a year.
Even in the absence of natural disasters, though, outages, rolling blackouts and appliance-frying surges are a daily reality. This ongoing energy crisis has forced residents to evolve quickly on renewables, especially solar power: The US territory has more rooftop solar installations per capita than all but six US states. (And that doesn’t include smaller systems that aren’t hooked up to the grid.)
Puerto Rico is especially well positioned to embrace solar: Studies suggest it receives enough sunlight to meet its residential needs more than four times over.
“Everyone should be keeping their eye on Puerto Rico,” said Lauren Rosenblatt, co-founder of Barrio Electrico, which provides solar energy to low- and moderate-income households on the island.
“What the [rest of the] US is going to see is that there are a lot more options for resiliency and sustainability,” Rosenblatt told CNET. “Not every solution that works in Puerto Rico will work in your community, but they’re generating myriad solutions. We’re lucky to have them leading the way.”
Climate change is putting energy infrastructure to the test all over the US, and the challenges Puerto Ricans face — and the solutions they’re finding — could be a glimpse at the future for those far from the island.
Here’s what Puerto Rico can teach us about energy resilience, the benefits of solar and the role of community groups, utilities and government in reaching a sustainable future.
Solar power is critical to climate resiliency
Climate change is making hurricanes more extreme and destructive. Scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that, from 1850 to 2020, human-generated greenhouse gases led to an increase of more than 1 degree Celsius in global average surface temperature.
That warming trend “will lead to yet further increases in North Atlantic hurricane season extreme rainfall rates and accumulated amounts,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications in April 2022.
As the intensity of severe weather incidents increases, so will the frequency of power outages. Solar panels, though, are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds: When Hurricane Maria hit, a VA hospital in San Juan remained fully operational while others lost power, thanks to its solar setup.
Javier Rúa-Jovet is chief policy officer for the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico, a regional trade association. After Maria, his home in a middle-class part of San Juan was without power for six weeks.
Relying on a 17-kilowatt generator for power, he said, was traumatizing.
“My whole nervous system was in tune with the noises it made,” Rúa-Jovet told CNET. “Every day I was afraid the generator was going to die.”
By the time Fiona made landfall last year, though, Rúa-Jovet had connected a Tesla Powerwall to his rooftop array and was able to maintain full power. Now, whenever there’s an outage, the system kicks in automatically, often in less than a second.
“Sometimes you see the lights flicker when there’s an outage,” he said. “But usually you don’t know until you get a notification on your phone.”
Crises can bring opportunities for innovation
A worker installs solar panels in Puerto Rico
Before Hurricane Maria, there were maybe 9,000 rooftop solar setups in Puerto Rico, according to Rúa-Jovet, and most weren’t connected to batteries.
“After Maria, solar is basically universally installed with storage,” he said. “It was really a paradigm-shifting event.”
New installations have grown from a few hundred a month to more than 3,000.
In January 2022, there were 42,000 homes and businesses with solar-plus-battery projects in Puerto Rico, more than eight times the number before Irma and Maria.
This summer, that number is nearing 80,000.
That’s still only a fraction of the close to 1.2 million households in Puerto Rico, but the desire to move beyond the grid is growing exponentially.
Solutions have to be cost-effective
In Puerto Rico, power isn’t just unreliable, it’s expensive. Residential electricity averaged 24.17 cents per kilowatt-hour in May, compared with 16.14 cents in the continental US. The cost of importing petroleum, natural gas and coal means electricity can be up to twice as much as it is on the mainland.
Solar is more reliable and cheaper in the long run, but installing a rooftop system still runs between $10,000 and $13,000. That’s a steep price in a territory where the median household income is just under $22,000.
Financing options grew substantially after Hurricane Maria. Rúa-Jovet said solar companies like Sunrun and Sunnova offer terms that enable residents with a credit score of about 640 to get a rooftop setup without any upfront costs.
Instead of monthly electricity bills, he said, approved customers pay roughly the same amount in loan payments “for power that is clean and doesn’t go away.”
And unlike energy costs, the loan rates are fixed.
Vulnerable populations can’t be left behind
While Sunnova and Sunrun offer solar loans, there are still many in the commonwealth who can’t afford financing. According to the US Census Bureau, 40.5% of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, more than twice the 19.7% poverty level in Mississippi, the poorest state in the US.
“There is a place for for-profit companies like Sunnova and Sunrun to offer [financing], but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Andrew Hermann, executive director of the Monte Azul Foundation, a nonprofit focused on energy and food equity. “We’re going to need a lot of different solutions.”
On July 31, the US Department of Energy announced more than $450 million was being allocated for distributed solar and battery storage in some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said her agency was committed to expanding access to clean energy in Puerto Rico, “especially for the communities most at risk.”
The funds will enable up to 40,000 setups to be installed in low-income areas hit with frequent and prolonged outages. (Households with energy-dependent devices like electric wheelchairs and at-home dialysis machines are also being targeted.)
“That’s the best population to direct incentives toward,” Rúa-Jovet said. “It’s very targeted money that will help people that are basically outside of the financing market.”
The investment is part of the $1 billion Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund established by the Biden administration to strengthen the island’s grid and help it reach its clean energy goals. Further investments will be directed at community solar projects, microgrids and grid modernization, according to the Department of Energy.
Community-based solutions can lead the way
A private US-Canadian consortium, Luma Energy took over responsibility for maintaining and improving the island’s utility grid in June 2021. Its predecessor, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, was a government monopoly that filed for bankruptcy following decades of mismanagement, negligence and corruption.
Luma inherited a decrepit system, but it has been blamed for failing to improve service and future-proof the grid.
“Its performance so far has been, in the best case, deficient, and in the worst, dismal,” said Sergio Marxuach, policy director for the Puerto Rican think tank Center for New Economy.
Luma didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On the ground, residents aren’t waiting for Luma — or lawmakers — to provide solutions. In rural areas, grassroots groups are constructing standalone solar networks, known as microgrids, to ensure hospitals, schools and fire stations have power.
In Caguas, about 20 miles south of San Juan, donated solar panels were attached to the roof of an abandoned office building, transforming it into a supply center that doesn’t rely on electricity from the utility.
“There are many communities — small communities — that are really making big waves and developing solar-plus-storage microgrids,” Hermann said.
There’s been so much interest, he added, “because so many people are just fed up with the current system. These communities are coming together to really choose a different path.”
Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of the community environmental group Casa Pueblo, calls the movement an “energy insurrection.”
Casa Pueblo has been the driving force behind community solar in Adjuntas, a mountainside town of about 18,000. In an area where some people were without power for 11 months after Maria, the organization was able to install 700 solar panels and provide 220 kilowatts to more than a dozen businesses downtown. Second-hand EV batteries donated by automaker Rivian provide a megawatt of battery storage and allow Puerto Rico’s first community-owned microgrid to provide power independent of the grid for up to 10 days.
Casa Pueblo worked with nonprofits like the Honnold Foundation and the Community Solar Energy Association of Adjuntas to fund the $2 million project. And while the merchants pay for the energy they use, their rates are significantly lower than Luma’s. Profits are used for maintenance and to finance rooftop solar installations for low-income residents.
The Monte Azul Foundation is working to develop a smaller microgrid in Maricao, a village of less than 5,000 residents that sees outages several times a week. It’ll only generate between 100 and 150 kilowatts, but it will power a pharmacy, a gas station and the only bank in Maricao.
“When we don’t have power, we lose access to ATMs and all our financial services because the bank has no backup power,” Hermann said.
But support from the government and utilities is essential
While the federal government has allocated more than $30 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from Maria and the 2020 earthquakes, critics say not enough is being done to develop energy resiliency.
In 2019, the legislative assembly passed the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act, or Act 17, which set an ambitious deadline to use 100% renewable energy by 2050.
“Puerto Rico’s Green New Deal,” as Rúa-Jovet called it, sets a benchmark of 40% of electricity from renewables by 2025 and 60% by 2040. Right now, though, solar, wind and other clean energy sources generate only about 3% of the island’s electricity. The remaining 97% come from fossil fuel-fired power plants.
In February 2022, the government-appointed Puerto Rico Energy Bureau conditionally approved 18 renewable power plants projected to produce 884 megawatts by the end of next year.
That’s supposed to boost the share of electricity from renewables to 23%, but that’s still short of Act 17’s 40% goal. And environmentalists are suing to halt the projects because, they say, the plants will be built on agriculturally valuable land instead of rooftops, parking lots and landfills.
Regulators have also been accused of targeting recovery funds for fossil fuel projects. They even floated the idea of taxing solar users up to 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour to pay down PREPA’s $8.2 billion debt and discourage people from defecting from the grid.
Neither Luma nor the government in San Juan has actively opposed community microgrid projects, activists say. But they haven’t done much to help, either.
“There isn’t a whole lot of government involvement in rural mountain communities to begin with,” Hermann said. “They’re forgotten about in many ways.
Virtual power plants can take stress off the grid
In addition to keeping homeowners’ power on during a blackout, solar-plus-battery systems that are connected to the grid can send energy back to the network during high-usage periods.
Using connected households or businesses to meet grid needs is commonly referred to as a virtual power plant, or VPP.
Luma is enlisting 6,000 customers for a pilot VPP program expected to launch this fall. When high-demand situations arise, the utility will access battery reserves from the participants, who are credited for the energy they provide.
“This program is being developed to address those days when Luma has a shortfall in energy generation,” said Michael Juarbe, Sunnova’s senior manager for government affairs. “What’s very important to understand is that this is an opt-in program — we’re not forcing anyone to participate, and people can set how much they distribute.”
The technology is there to do a much larger VPP network, Juarbe said, “but we know that you have to take slow steps.”
Should it be successful, Juarbe could see a VPP generating a gigawatt of energy for Puerto Rico.
“We could replace a power plant based on dirty fuels and provide clean energy consistently to the grid,” he said. “In the short term, we’re talking about avoiding outages. But long term, I think virtual power plants are the future.”
Decentralize the power supply
Puerto Rico’s largest power plants are along the southern coast. But the most populous areas, like San Juan, are in the north. Transmission lines that cross remote mountain ranges are vulnerable to hurricane winds and take a long time to repair.
“Our energy paradigm is still a centralized system based on imported fossil fuels,” Rúa-Jovet said. “That’s the opposite of resiliency. If you hit one part, everything goes down.”
The solution, he added, “is to have systems that are widely distributed, with lots of redundancies.”
Solar-plus-storage microgrids “can decouple and operate independently of the main grid during blackouts,” according to a position paper from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think tank.
“We champion a highly decentralized, bottom-up grid approach that starts with personal microgrids, aggregated microgrids, then community microgrids — all the way to municipal or even larger solar and storage systems,” the group said.
Puerto Rico’s present is the mainland’s future
Puerto Rico has been grappling with an energy crisis for years. But it’s only recently that other parts of the US have realized how fragile their energy grid is.
Century 21, a leading real estate company, and SolarBuzz Jamaica, an innovative player in the renewable energy sector, have joined and formed a partnership which was the subject of a signing ceremony earlier today.
With the recent majority stake acquisition of Century 21 by FirstRock, a prominent real estate company, the partnership takes on even greater significance, establishing a robust foundation for an ambitious expansion. This alliance between Century 21 and SolarBuzz Jamaica marks the first of many strategic collaborations as Century 21 paves the way for key industry partnerships.
“Century 21 is thrilled to embark on this transformative journey alongside SolarBuzz Jamaica,” said Jordan Chin, Executive Chairman of Century 21 Heave Ho Properties. “This partnership opens up remarkable opportunities to enhance our services and provide unmatched value to our customers. Together, we will revolutionise the real estate industry and exceed expectations.”
Jason Robinson, CEO of SolarBuzz Jamaica, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “We are delighted to collaborate with Century 21 on this strategic venture. By combining our renewable energy expertise with Century 21’s exceptional real estate services, we can create sustainable and innovative solutions for our customers. This partnership marks a significant milestone in reshaping the industry and driving positive change.”
To solidify their commitment to delivering specialised services to clients and customers, Century 21 and SolarBuzz Jamaica have signed a memorandum of understanding. This agreement not only ensures superior service but also guarantees heightened brand exposure and publicity, bolstering the reach and impact of both companies.
It’s no secret, there are a lot of solar panels on the market. Many promise different results from lower prices to better aesthetics. But what factors should you weigh when evaluating which solar provider to choose? It all comes down to these 3 things – efficiency, durability and warranty.
Efficiency
SunPower® solar panels are widely known to be the most efficient on the market*. That’s because SunPower solar cells are unobstructed by metal gridlines across the top, unlike most conventional solar cells. That means that there is plenty of open space for each solar cell’s unique light-trapping surface to absorb more than just visible light rays such as ultraviolet and infrared light.
SunPower also uses intra-digitated back contact technology, meaning all of the wires that carry the electricity from each cell in the solar panel are placed onto the back. This eliminates shading and helps SunPower solar panels generate more energy, even when the weather isn’t ideal. SunPower’s technology and strategic design give its solar panels the ability to harvest more sunlight than conventional solar panels.
Durability
In addition to their design for efficiency, SunPower solar panels were also created with durability in mind. SunPower solar cells have a strong copper backing that is resistant to corrosion and weathering. This is incredibly important because solar panels sit on rooftops and are subject to harsh temperature and weather changes. Exposure to the elements causes all solar panels to degrade over time. But the rate of degradation can vary heavily from one solar panel provider to another. For a conventional solar panel, this reduction of power output happens at an average rate of 0.5% each year. But a SunPower solar panel degrades much more slowly at only 0.25% each year. That’s a big difference and illustrates just how durable SunPower solar panels are.
Warranty
Not all warranties are created equal. To find the real value behind a warranty, homeowners should look past just the years a solar system is covered. Some solar companies have warranties that only cover the materials but not the loss of power production. Or, they source parts from different manufacturers, leaving you with multiple warranties to sort through. SunPower offers the most comprehensive warranty in the industry, with coverage spanning both power and product. In addition, SunPower is the only company that stands behind the entire solar system, not just the panels. In the rare likelihood that something does go wrong, you only need to contact one company to fix the issue – SunPower.
But SunPower doesn’t just stop at the product. We also guarantee that your panels won’t lose more than 8% of their original DC power output in 25 years. When compared to conventional solar providers that only guarantee 19%, there’s a clear winner.
When deciding which solar panels are right for your home, do yourself a favor and evaluate which option delivers the most overall value. Chances are, you’ll land on SunPower as the obvious choice.
