A new study in Nature Sustainability analyzed 3.38 billion charging records from 22,000 charging piles across 40 global cities to assess the viability of powering electric vehicles with rooftop solar panels. The researchers found that despite rapid EV adoption outpacing solar generation growth, rooftop PV can still meet 2050 charging demand in all cities studied. Total projected revenue from 2025 to 2050 is $3,173 billion with cumulative carbon mitigation of 11.9 gigatons. The study projects rooftop solar generation will double in each city by 2050 while EV charging demand could rise 4 to 1,759 times depending on adoption rates. The authors identified an exponential scaling law that governs daily charging capacity across urban microgrids of varying sizes. This suggests the approach remains economically viable across diverse urban settings even as demand surges. For anyone tracking the intersection of distributed solar, EV infrastructure, and urban decarbonization, this paper provides concrete city-level projections rather than theoretical models. The data and code are publicly available on GitHub, making the findings verifiable and useful for local planning decisions.
