Power Your Home and Charge Your EV With Solar

Electric vehicle registrations in Arizona have climbed sharply, with the Phoenix metro leading the charge. ADOT data show more than 90,000 registered EVs in the state, and Maricopa County zip codes account for the majority of them. Homeowners who buy their first EV often discover a painful surprise on their next utility bill. Home charging can add another 300 to 500 kilowatt hours to a single month of power consumption, which lands inside the highest rate tiers of APS and SRP pricing.

With APS rates up roughly 30 percent over the past five years and another SRP adjustment on the horizon, those extra kilowatt hours get expensive fast. The good news for Phoenix Valley drivers is that pairing a rooftop solar array with an EV solves the problem at the source. Instead of buying more power from the grid, you generate it yourself during the very hours your car sits parked at home. Phoenix Valley Solar designs those combined systems every week across Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Mesa, and the rest of the East and West Valley.

Why Phoenix Valley Drivers Are Pairing EVs With Home Solar

Phoenix has one of the most favorable climates in the country for solar production. The metro averages roughly 6.5 peak sun hours per day across the year, which is nearly double the national average. That abundance of daylight is also exactly when most commuters are at the office, school, or running errands, which means their EV is parked somewhere else while the solar array is producing free power.

Home solar converts that unused daylight into grid credits through net metering, then pulls the credits back down at night when the EV is plugged in. The result is a near zero fuel bill for your car and a near zero utility bill for your home. That is the core value proposition Phoenix Valley Solar offers as an independent solar broker. You can learn more about our broker model on our About page.

How Home Solar Transforms the Economics of an Electric Vehicle

Most Phoenix Valley homes pay around 17 cents per kilowatt hour for APS electricity during on peak hours, and the typical modern EV uses about 0.30 kilowatt hours per mile. For a driver covering 12,000 miles per year, that works out to 3,600 kilowatt hours annually, or roughly 612 dollars in extra utility cost just to keep the car moving. Add a second EV and the number doubles to more than 1,200 dollars a year in avoidable charging cost.

When those same kilowatt hours come off your own roof, the cost per mile falls to pennies. A properly sized solar array in the Phoenix Valley produces approximately 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per installed kilowatt per year thanks to Arizona's 300 plus days of sunshine. That means a modest 2 kilowatt expansion of your solar system can cover an average EV for an entire year. For homes with two EVs, adding 4 to 5 kilowatts usually eliminates the entire fuel budget.

The Prepaid Solar Lease Changes Everything

Phoenix Valley Solar specializes in the prepaid solar lease with a 30 percent discount baked in. You pay a single upfront amount equal to roughly 70 percent of the system's market cost, and in exchange the leasing company covers production guarantees, monitoring, and maintenance for 25 years. You still keep all of the power coming off the panels, which means every mile you drive your EV on that power is essentially free.

Because the lease is prepaid rather than financed, there is no loan, no monthly payment, and no interest accruing against your savings. For a household that is also planning an EV purchase, the prepaid lease lets you deploy dollars into the single asset that simultaneously eliminates your fuel bill and your APS or SRP bill. You can run your own numbers on our Solar Calculator before you ever talk to a salesperson.

Sizing Your Solar Array for Home and EV

A typical Phoenix area home uses 13,000 to 15,000 kilowatt hours per year. Adding a single EV pushes that to roughly 17,000 kilowatt hours, and a two EV household usually lands at 20,000 or more. Many installers undersize systems because they only look at your last 12 months of utility history, which does not reflect your future EV. Phoenix Valley Solar sizes around true future demand, not a rear view mirror estimate.

For one EV, a 9 to 11 kilowatt system covers nearly all usage. For two EVs, 12 to 14 kilowatts is typically correct. The prepaid lease scales with system size and still carries the full 30 percent discount at every tier. If you already have panels but bought an EV after your original installation, we can design a compact expansion that overlays your existing system without re permitting the entire roof.

Level 2 Home Charging: What You Actually Need

Every EV comes with a standard 120 volt charger, but charging from a regular outlet only adds about 4 miles of range per hour. A Level 2 charger on a 240 volt circuit increases that to 25 to 40 miles of range per hour, which easily covers any daily commute overnight. Most Phoenix Valley homes have the electrical capacity for a 40 or 50 amp EV circuit in the garage, especially once a solar array is already feeding the main service panel.

When Phoenix Valley Solar installs or expands your solar array, we can also install a Level 2 charger at the same time. That saves you a separate electrician visit and keeps all of the permitting under one project with your city, whether that is Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, or Scottsdale. Reach out through our Contact page to request a combined EV and solar quote.

Phoenix Valley City Breakdown for Solar Plus EV Charging

Chandler has one of the highest EV adoption rates in the state thanks to its tech corridor. Chandler zip codes sit among the top ten for registered EVs in Maricopa County, and summer home energy use often exceeds 1,800 kilowatt hours per month. That combination makes solar plus EV charging especially valuable. APS net metering rewards excess production during peak daylight, which lines up perfectly with a Tesla, Rivian, or Mustang Mach E sitting in the driveway while the owner is at work.

Gilbert has grown faster than almost any city in Arizona, with population up roughly 18 percent since 2020. New homes in neighborhoods like Seville, Power Ranch, and Adora Trails are being built with 200 amp service panels that readily support Level 2 EV charging alongside a large solar array. Gilbert residents typically pay SRP rather than APS, and SRP's demand rate structure makes solar plus a Level 2 charger an especially sharp savings combination.

Scottsdale is APS territory with generous lot sizes and multi car garages. Many Scottsdale homes already have the space and electrical capacity for two EVs. A prepaid lease on a 14 kilowatt array can cover an average Scottsdale home plus two vehicles with power to spare, turning those 250 dollar summer bills into something close to zero while also eliminating the fuel budget.

Mesa is a split APS and SRP service area, and homeowners near Red Mountain, Las Sendas, and Eastmark are adopting EVs quickly. Mesa's solar production numbers are among the best in the state, with a 10 kilowatt system typically generating 17,500 to 19,000 kilowatt hours per year. That is more than enough capacity for most homes plus at least one EV.

Tempe's mix of ASU faculty, medical professionals, and technology workers has driven fast EV adoption near Warner, McClintock, and South Tempe. Smaller lot sizes mean arrays tend to be in the 7 to 9 kilowatt range, which still covers a typical home plus one EV comfortably when paired with a prepaid lease.

Surprise, Goodyear, and Peoria are seeing the fastest new construction in the West Valley. Homeowners there can lock in the prepaid lease at 30 percent off while incorporating a Level 2 charger during initial panel installation. The West Valley averages 6.5 peak sun hours per day, making solar production extremely consistent year over year.

Real Numbers: What Solar Plus EV Charging Saves in Arizona

Combining a prepaid solar lease, a Level 2 home charger, and an EV typically delivers the following savings for a Phoenix Valley family:

• About 2,000 dollars per year in avoided gasoline costs for 12,000 miles driven

• Roughly 600 to 1,200 dollars per year in avoided APS or SRP costs for EV charging

• Another 1,800 to 2,600 dollars per year in avoided home electricity costs

• A full 30 percent discount on the entire system courtesy of the prepaid lease

That is 4,400 to 5,800 dollars per year in combined savings for an average household, and even more for two EV homes. Across the 25 year life of the lease, that compounds into well over 100,000 dollars, especially as APS and SRP continue raising rates. You may also want to read our related post, How Arizona Homeowners Are Slashing Their APS Bill With Solar, to see how the math evolves as utility prices rise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my current solar system handle a new EV?

If your array is under 9 kilowatts and already covering a full home, probably not. Phoenix Valley Solar can design a compact expansion that overlays your existing panels, all under one prepaid lease with the 30 percent discount applied to the new panels only.

Will my APS or SRP bill really drop to zero?

Most Phoenix Valley customers with a correctly sized solar plus EV setup see bills between 10 and 30 dollars per month, mostly basic service fees. Some hit true zero. The key is sizing the array for future demand, not just last year's usage.

How long does it take to install solar and an EV charger together?

From signed agreement to system activation, most Phoenix Valley projects take 6 to 10 weeks. That includes design, city permitting, installation, and utility inspection. Adding a Level 2 charger typically adds only about one day to the on roof portion of the install.

Do I need a battery to charge my EV with solar?

No. Most Phoenix Valley homeowners charge overnight with grid power and export excess solar to the grid during the day, relying on net metering to balance the account. A battery is useful if you want to charge during outages or maximize self consumption, but it is not required to capture the savings.

What makes Phoenix Valley Solar different from a big box installer?

We are a broker, not a single installer, so we shop multiple equipment lines and the prepaid lease with its 30 percent discount at every quote. That means better equipment matching for your specific roof and a lower final price. Start with our Solar Calculator or reach out through our Contact page for a no pressure conversation.