Solar panel output deteriorates every year. I had solar panels (not shingles) installed about 12 years ago and there’s some noticeable deterioration. There’s a story just recently in LA Times about many old solar panels ending up in landfills:
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Unless you drive a whole, whole lot while you’re at your cottage, I think you wouldn’t need to bother. You can just run an extension cord from normal outlet. It’s slow - you gain about 4 miles of charge per hour - but it gets the job done fine for a vacation-type scenario where you’re mostly staying in place.
We take our Bolt to the SC coast every year for a weekend family gathering. Six hour trip. We stop once along the way to charge and eat dinner (I’m the type of person who needs to stretch her legs every couple of hours anyway, so for me this is no different than in an ICE car) and then plug the car into a wall outlet when we get there. It is fully charged when we are ready to go home.
My husband and I were in Quebec City recently for the first time. We were surprised and excited to see so many Chevy Bolts there! I don’t have any idea what their charging infrastructure looks like - we were just tourists on foot - but based on the number of EVs we saw I wonder if there has been a more concerted effort to get the charging infrastructure built out than here in the US? Might be worth looking into.
As for driving to Florida from somewhere far enough north to be six hours from Quebec - that sounds like a heck of a trip no matter what your vehicle. In an EV you’d have no trouble finding places to charge, but you’d be limited to I-95 through the more rural areas. Maybe that’s true anyway, depending on where you’re coming from.
I will tell you in 25 years by how much our solar energy production will drop. 
Silfab has calculated that this is about 5-7%.
Speaking of recycling, it does not make sense financially until there is a critical mass of stuff to recycle. The time will come.
There was a co in my state that recycles wind turbine blades. Not an easy thing to do… fiberglass is a PITA to recycle.
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It does depend on the EV. From a typical 120V 15A outlet being used for 12A charging, a relatively efficient EV like a Bolt or Model 3 can gain about 4 miles of range per hour, but a less efficient EV may only gain about 3 miles of range per hour, and the least efficient EVs may only gain about 2 miles of range per hour.
How much natural gas (the largest electricity generation source in NJ) and uranium (the second largest electricity generation source in NJ) will your panels have avoided burning by the time they are no longer useful?
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Environmentally speaking, solar panels clearly made sense. However, some of the cost were ignored in order to promote their adoption. When I had the panels installed, panels were much more expensive but they were also more heavily subsidized. NJ was, and still is, among the states to subsidize renewable energy use more heavily. Besides federal tax subsidy, NJ adopted an SREC program, which forces utility companies to purchase SREC certificates from generators like myself. A certificate is created for each kW of electricity I generates, regardless of how the energy is used (consumed or put back to the grid). The value of the certificate is determined by the market (but the demand is basically set by the state to promote solar adoption). When my solar system was first installed, each certificate was worth nearly $600 and the system generates one about each month. Now the price is just over $220 each.
Thanks @stringbird. Our cottage is in the country – rickety internet – in the province of Quebec. But, we certainly could charge from the house. But, it is good to know that there is likely good charging infrastructure in the cities.
The Florida trip is roughly 22 hours – 12 hours and then 10 hours. I don’t think we would do it if my car wasn’t so comfortable. We stop for Starbucks every 3-4 hours (I need fuel) and usually fill up along the way. If Starbucks had charging stations, life would be good. You are correct that most of the drive is along I-95 until we go to the west side of Florida.
But, maybe we will be ready for full EVs when the SUV is ready to be replaced.
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Thanks. I really only know about the Bolt and I will try to remember to caveat my comments accordingly.
This is something I’ve wondered about. Seems like the set of people who would be interested in an EV is in general a subset of people who might like a Starbucks, and that Starbucks would benefit from having EV chargers in their parking lots. Maybe they haven’t done this because it’s not really their area of specialty and their lots are already usually pretty small. But I’d sure stop at them all the time if they had chargers.
The demographic overlay between Starbucks drinkers and EV owners IMO is huge. Seems like the same set of people. All the Starbucks near me have no room for anything. Many don’t even have parking lots or they are so tiny that watching people park is entertainment.
That is a misconception that superchargers are located by Starbucks. 
Among the multiple Superchargers we’ve used, only 2 have Starbucks in the vicinity. The chargers are not located in Starbucks’ parking lots but rather in bigger lots (think mid-tier chain hotels, Fred Meyers, etc. conveniently accessible off major roads) where there a Starbucks might just happen to be located. One Supercharger was in a truck stop, another one was next to a giant burger restaurant. The locations are usually chosen so nearby businesses can provide food and restrooms to the charger users (and the businesses benefit from more traffic, too).
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Folks considering an EV and influenced by the federal tax credit should be aware of significant changes that will likely result from the inflation reduction act. Requirements for North American assembly seem to start as soon as the law is signed and future battery requirements will reduce the number of EVs eligible in the near term.
Given that many of these cars are selling at 5-10k over msrp I don’t know how much the 7500 tax credit was influencing people but if someone is on the fence about buying a car this week it’s worth digging into the details of this bill.
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/10/electric-vehicles-tax-credit-biden
The headline is somewhat misleading.
Certainly, there are some people who want to buy EVs who should buy them before the bill passes. These would include those who want EVs from companies that have not used up their current tax credits but could be removed from the list of eligible EVs under the bill. Those with incomes over the income limit in the bill would also want to buy sooner rather than after the income limit applies. However, there are other buyers who may benefit from the bill over the current credit, such as those who want to buy used EVs, those who want to buy GM or Tesla EVs that may qualify under the bill, or those who may not be able to get the full benefit of the current credit since the current credit is non-refundable.
Of course, it is likely that most forum posters interested in EVs, if they are not specifically looking at GM or Tesla EVs, are more likely to be in the former group than the latter group.
The problem is that many (if not most) of the EV’s you would want to by before the the bill passes have significant wait times for delivery and a deposit won’t trigger pre-new-law eligibility so eve if you head to the dealer today you probably will still get impacted by the bill.
The issue of buying this week applies also to those buying a model this calendar year, but after the bill is signed, that isn’t manufactured in North America.
While most of the bill goes into effect starting in 2023, the North American manufacturing requirement goes into effect when the bill is enacted (or at least that’s the way most are interpreting it).
Most EVs will not meet that requirement this year. So, someone who is browsing an Ioniq5 this week might find it no longer eligible next week.
It’s unclear if an EV on order with a refundable deposit will meet the requirement either. Some manufacturers like Fisker and Rivian are scrambling to find ways to make portions of deposits non refundable in the hopes that this will help customers meet the transition requirements.
I agree there are winners and losers, just wanted to make people aware that this is in the mix now. (To be clear, I support the legislation).
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And the prices of EVs will probably increase because the cost of components are increasing.
It may be a bit over-simplified, but probably not misleading. According to the Financial Times, the cost of raw material is soaring:
Carmakers’ battery plans in peril as raw material costs soar | Financial Times (ft.com)
The new rebate may eventually encourage more domestic production of battery components, but it will likely take a long time from such a low base (US production in batteries, other than in final assembly, is currently nearly invisible):
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When this thread was first posted less than 2 months ago I was optimistic that our next car would be an EV. Now, as I’ve followed this thread, and periodically monitored the prices of the EV’s we would want (many are not available yet), it’s now much less likely.
The biggest reason is $$.
The cars we eyes have increased since first being described, and now we learn we aren’t even eligible for a tax credit bc of income bracket.
I admit to being a bit disgruntled.
Thankfully, we drive little, and have no need for a new vehicle anytime soon. We had just wanted an EV in part to have a new car and a green one at that. Now I think we’ll just continue to save our money. And wait. And watch.
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Unless we need to (hit a deer or something), we’re not buying anything new for a while. Ford’s Lightning would have already been in our yard had they actually had them, but with a 3 year wait, not happening.
So, we’re still doing our usual, “use our vehicles until they die” plan that we’ve done for decades now. When they’ve died in the past we never once considered a tax break in our search. I don’t plan to in the future either. We just discuss what we need/want (at that time) and start searching to see what has it, then buy accordingly.
That said, when we were with our EV son this past week he was driving us all over in his Hyundai. It rode really, really well and it was super nice never needing gas. When needed, he just plugged it in overnight at his house and he didn’t have to do that every night. If we do hit a deer (or whatever), I hope something at least equally as good is available assuming we don’t opt for a truck instead.
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Ford just raised the price of the Lightning $8500.
Every house in the Southwest ought to have solar panels. We’re looking at getting a place in Las Vegas. One of our friends there proudly showed us his electric bill: $15 a month to be connected to the grid. He runs a very nice 4-bedroom house and his Tesla from the panels alone. That includes running the air conditioning all summer when it’s 110 degrees and the heat in the winter. So he’s living in suburban luxury with zero ongoing carbon impact. We would definitely want that setup (though with less square footage!) when we make the move. We have no idea what the right vehicle would be, though. We’d be doing a lot of longish drives up into the mountains.
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