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Nov 02 2022
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Charging a Tesla Model 3 With Solar Panels vs Grid Electricity

By Charging Your EV With Solar Panels No Comments

There are plenty of reasons to drive an electric car. Near the top of the list is saving time and money by charging right at home. But is there any benefit to charging a Tesla Model 3 with solar panels instead of grid electricity?

In this article, we’ll crunch the numbers to figure out, on average, how many solar panels it takes to charge a Tesla Model 3 and how much it costs. Then, we’ll compare how much you would spend to charge a Tesla 3 with solar panels versus grid electricity.

First thing’s first: How much electricity does a Tesla Model 3 need to fully charge?

How Much Electricity Does a Tesla Model 3 Need to Charge?

There are two Tesla 3 models with different battery sizes and ranges.

  • The standard 50 kWh battery with a 220-mile range
  • The long-range 70 kWh battery with a 310-mile range

Let’s go with the bigger battery for our example.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average American drives 13,476 miles per year or 1,123 miles per month.

So, if you drive an average of 1,123 miles per month and the Tesla 3 with the long-range battery can drive 310 miles on a single charge, let’s find out how many full charges you’ll need per month.

1,123 miles / 310 miles per charge = 3.6 charges per month

Allowing some wiggle room for battery degradation over time and other variables, let’s put it at even 4 charges per month.

70 kWh battery x 4 charges per month = 280 kWh needed per month

To break it down by day:

280 kWh per month / 30 days in a month = 9.3 kWh needed per day

So a Tesla 3 with a 70 kWh battery requires 9.3 kWh per day for the average American driving 1,123 miles per month (~37 miles per day). Let’s see how many solar panels charging a Tesla Model 3 requires.

How many solar panels to charge a Tesla Model 3?

The amount of kWh a solar panel produces depends on the power rating of the panel and how much sun it gets. Depending on where you live in the US, that can average between 4 and 6 hours a day. We’ll split the difference and say 5 hours.

9.3 kWh per day / 5 hours of sun per day = 1.86 kW to meet energy needs

Let’s divide that by 78 percent to account for the slight loss during power conversion.

1.86 kW / .78 = 2.38 kW

Now we simply divide the kilowatts you need by the solar panel power rating to get the average number of solar panels you’ll need. Today, the most popular solar panels are rated for 400W or 0.4 kW.

2.38 kW / .4 kW = 5.95 solar panels

Rounding up, that’s roughly 6 additional 400W solar panels needed to charge the Tesla 3 with the long-range battery. Of course, the answer varies by the number of peak sun hours and the power rating of the panel.

The table below shows how many panels you need to charge a Tesla Model 3 for some common sun and panel combinations.

Peak sun hours Solar panel power rating Number of panels to charge a Tesla Model 3*
4 250W 12
4 400W 8
5 250W 10
5 400W 6
6 250W 8
6 400W 5

*Tesla Model 3 with 70 kWh battery with a 310-mile range driving 37 miles per day.

Now that we know how many solar panels it takes to charge a Tesla Model 3, let’s see how much each panel costs.

How Much Do Solar Panels Cost?

The average cost for residential solar panels is around $3.30 per Watt installed.

If you need 6 x 400 Watt solar panels to charge your Tesla 3, the total wattage you’ll need to charge it is 2400 Watts.

2400 W x $3.30 = $7,920

After you claim the 30% federal solar tax credit the net cost drops to $5,544.

Remember, once you have paid for those panels, they will keep on generating electricity for 25+ years. So this is the all-in cost to charge a Tesla Model 3 and the EVs that come after it for at least the next two and a half decades.

Charging a tesla with solar panels

Related reading: Hyundai IONIQ 5 Charging Costs: Solar Versus Utility

Cost per kWh to charge a Tesla Model 3 with solar panels

The most useful way to break down the cost of charging a Tesla Model 3 with solar panels is by breaking it down to cents per kilowatt hour. This is the industry standard used by utilities to measure the price of electricity.

To find the cost per kWh, simply take the net cost of the system ($5,544 after the 30% tax credit in our example) and divide by the total lifetime output. In our case, a 2400W solar system with 5 hours of sun per day can be expected to produce 104,965 kWh of electricity over 25 years (assuming a 70% degradation factor).

$5,544 / 104,965 = 5.28 cents per kilowatt hour

 Think of this like the price per gallon of gas. So to fully charge the Tesla Model 3’s 70 kWh battery with solar panels would cost around $3.70.

That’s right, $3.70 to travel 310 miles — and no trips to the smelly gas station! Four dollars barely buys a single gallon of gas in some places, let alone an entire tank.

How Much Would it Cost to Charge a Tesla 3 with Grid Electricity?

Now that we’ve got the cost per kWh of charging a Tesla 3 with solar panels, we can easily compare it with the cost of charging with grid electricity or public chargers.

Since many people qualify for the 30% solar tax credit, let’s use 5.28 cents per kWh. The price of grid electricity varies from place to place, but the national average is 16.7 cents per kWh at the time of writing.

Cost of charging a Tesla 3 on grid vs solar

Charging method Cost per kWh Cost per full charge (70 kWh) Cost per month (280 kWh) Cost per year (3,360 kWh)
Solar panels 5.28 cents $3.70 $14.78 $177.41
Grid – US average 16.7 cents* $11.69 $46.76 $561.12
Grid – Chicago 18.8 cents* $13.16 $52.64 $631.68
Grid – Los Angeles 24.4 cents* $17.08 $68.32 $819.84
Grid – New York City 24.5 cents* $17.15 $68.60 $823.20
Public charging 40 cents $28 $112 $1,344

Figures based on the average American driver traveling 37 miles per day. September 2022 electricity prices per BLS.

For the average American, charging a Tesla with solar panels costs $383.71 less than charging on the grid in the first year – and much more if you live in New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago or use public chargers.

It’s also important to remember grid electricity prices rise over time, and have been rising at an average annual rate of 3.51% over the last five years.

Here’s a look at the cumulative savings of charging with solar versus grid electricity over the 25 year warrantied life of a solar system:

charging a tesla with solar panels vs grid electricity

Pay Yourself Back by Charging Your Tesla 3 With Solar Panels

If you use solar panels to charge your Tesla 3 and apply the 30% federal solar tax credit, the payback period for your $5,544 investment is eight to nine years. By the end of 25 years you’ll have saved over $16,000 by charging with solar panels.

If you don’t have the tax liability to use the tax credit, the payback period increases to 11-12 years and the lifetime savings decrease to just under $14,000 – which is still a good chunk of change.

One way to think about charging a Tesla with solar panels is buying 25 years worth of electricity for a massive discount – in this case 5.28 c/kWh instead of 16.7 c/kWh. It takes time to recoup your investment, but the return is steady and reliable since solar panels are backed by a 25-year performance guarantee.

Connect with an Energy Advisor to see how much you could save by charging with solar.

 

Nov 01 2022
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is solar a good investment

5 Advantages of Solar Energy

By The Pros and Cons of Rooftop Solar in 2026 No Comments

With technology improving and costs falling, the advantages of solar energy are becoming more apparent by the day.

What was once a luxury item that only wealthy homeowners could afford is now a cost-cutting measure that average homeowners can’t afford NOT to consider. But the benefits of going solar reach beyond energy savings and touch everything from home value to the long-term health of the global ecosystem.

The five main advantages of solar energy are:

  1. Energy savings
  2. Versatility
  3. Environmental benefits
  4. Increased home value
  5. Long performance warranties

Let’s dive to the biggest advantage for most homeowners: energy savings.

Energy savings

As we mentioned above, solar panels are no longer a luxury item – they’re a reliable long-term investment and a hedge against rising energy costs.

As of October 2022, the average price of grid electricity was 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour – up 16% from the year before – while the average cost of solar electricity was around 7 cents per kilowatt hour for systems purchased through solar.com.

The primary advantage of solar energy is that it freezes your energy costs at a low rate for 25+ years, effectively shielding you from energy price increases. Here’s how buying a solar system compares to paying for grid electricity looks for the average American household:

Advantages of solar energy

Yes, solar requires a sizeable upfront investment, unless you choose to finance with a solar loan. However, solar systems typically pay for themselves several times over and can yield over $100,000 in energy savings over their warrantied life.

Calculate how much you could save by going solar.

Versatility

The second advantage of solar energy is its versatility. While you probably picture solar panels in sunny places like Florida and California, rooftop solar can provide clean energy and utility bill savings in almost every corner of the US.

That’s right, solar even works in rainy Seattle, where electricity is cheap and it’s overcast more than 200 days per year.

There’s a few things at play here. First, solar panels can use both direct and indirect sunlight. So even if it’s cloudy, panels can still produce electricity. Second, using net metering or battery storage, you can bank excess solar production from sunny days to offset the times your panels aren’t producing.

That also means that solar is suitable for urban, suburban, and rural installations. If you live in a city or a suburb, you can pair solar panels with net metering to offset your electricity bill. If you’re rural or off-grid, you can pair solar panels with battery storage to create your own miniature utility.

Solar can also be installed on a variety of roof types or standalone configurations. The one thing to look out for is shading. If you have tall trees or building surrounding your home, solar may not be the ideal investment.

Related reading: The Pros and Cons of Going Solar

Environmental benefits

It’s hard to overstate the environmental advantages of solar energy and how crucial it is to both curbing and preparing for the effects of climate change.

In terms of curbing climate change, solar is a renewable energy source with a fraction of the emissions of natural gas or coal. In fact, the small amount of emissions required to manufacture a solar panel are offset within its first two years of production. That leaves 2-3 decades of emission-free energy production.

Rooftop solar is especially eco-friendly because it requires no additional land use. Other forms of energy – like fracking, coal mining, hydroelectric, wind, and large-scale solar – disrupt natural ecosystems. Rooftop solar, on the other hand, does not.

There are also local benefits to rooftop solar. By producing clean energy, you are reducing your local utility’s reliance on fossil fuels and thereby reducing local carbon emissions that contribute to poor health outcomes like childhood asthma.

Increase home value

In addition to energy savings, solar panels offer a second form of return on investment in increased home value.

Studies by Zillow and the Berkeley Lab both concluded that solar panels increase home values – the only question is by how much. Zillow put the figure at 4.1% of the existing home value, while Berkeley Lab found it was around $4,000 per kW of solar capacity installed.

The advantage to homeowners is they can recoup the cost of going solar even if they move. And, if they take advantage of the 30% federal solar tax credit, the panels could provide more home value than the net cost of buying them.

Better yet, 34 states plus the District of Columbia have property tax exemptions for solar equipment. In many instances, that means you don’t have to pay tax on the additional value solar equipment adds to your home.

advantages of solar energy

Long, warrantied lifespan

Another advantage of solar energy that strengthens every other point on this list is the long, warrantied lifespan of today’s solar panels.

Modern solar panels typically have a 25-year manufacturer’s performance guarantee that ensures the panels maintain a certain level of output – typically 85% – throughout their warrantied life. That’s far longer than the warranty on a car, furnace, laptop, or almost anything else you can buy.

Solar panels have such long warranties because they essentially have no moving parts. And it’s important to note that solar panels don’t die or retire at the end of the warranty – they can continue producing electricity for much longer, albeit at a lower rate each year.

This long performance guarantee sets solar panels apart from other types of investments. Can you imagine a stock broker guaranteeing your portfolio will perform at a certain level for a quarter of a century?

The bottom line: Home solar has many advantages

Perhaps the biggest advantage of solar energy is that it’s got a little something for everyone.

  • Want to reduce your energy costs for 25 years? Go solar.
  • Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Go solar.
  • Living off-grid and need an energy source? You guessed it: Go solar.

The advantages of solar energy are only compounding as the technology continues to improve and the price of electricity continues its steep climb.

Start your solar journey with multiple quotes from our network of trusted installers.