I know a couple of people who have put solar panels on the rooftop of their hybrid cars. In fact, Michael Angemeer, chief executive of a large distribution utility northeast of Toronto called Veridian, drives around town in a plug-in hybrid Prius with rooftop solar. It's a novelty to be sure, but may not be for long. To my surprise, there are reports that Toyota is planning to have solar panels installed atop high-end versions of its next-generation Prius. Now, obviously the panels wouldn't be a major contributor of power, but they would be used to power air conditioning -- thus saving battery power and maintaining fuel economy during hot weather. One report says the solar panels will supply part of the two-to-five kilowatts of power needed for the Prius aircon system. It's unclear whether this would be just for the original Prius, or also for the company's planned plug-in model in 2010.

This tells me two things: first, Toyota must be expecting the price of solar to be coming down; second, Toyota recognizes that some people will pay the extra money because being "green" is cool. Purchasing a Prius with a solar roof is no different today than buying a convertible car or the leather seat option or whatever turns your crank.

Now, this really gets interesting when we see solar on plug-ins and progress with vehicle-to-grid applications. You know, that whole idea of driving to work in an PHEV, plugging in your car while it sits in the parking lot for eight hours, and selling electricity back to the grid? I have to admit, this idea confuses me a bit. Why would somebody drain their battery while at work? Wouldn't this mean poorer fuel economy while driving home? A solar roof, on the other hand, gets around this. Basically your car sells solar power to the grid while it sits around all day. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of cars, and it adds up.

I know this is far off, but Toyota adding solar to the roof of its Prius is a meaningful step in this way-cool evolution, and I have no doubt there's a contingent of consumers out there who wouldn't think twice about buying one. I also have no doubt that GM, Honda and others will be forced to follow.


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