Below is a neat video of a Tesla owner charging his Model 3 with the power of the sun. Cameron, who has the YouTube channel The Tech of Tech, shares exactly how he achieved this in his video.

“I am charging my Tesla Model 3 from the power of the sun through solar panels that are on its roof,” he said in the video. He later explained that the solar panels are not permanently attached to the vehicle. “These are portable solar panels that I literally laid across the top. Each is 120 watts of power,” Cameron explained.

The solar panels are made by Bluetti. The panels feed a 2 kWh power station acting as the go-between for the panels and the Model 3. “There’s no way to get DC power from solar panels directly into the Model 3’s battery,” he said.

Cameron noted that this wasn’t a cost-effective or an efficient setup but if anyone had the tools to set it up, it’s pretty simple to do. This is something that would be great for camping or use as a backup portable charger, one that would work when the sun is out. While charging his vehicle with the power of the sun, Cameron explained that he is doing his absolute best to reduce the amount of power, including turning off features such as Sentry Mode and everything except for the car itself.

“Right now we have about 1400 watts of output and only about 25 watts of input because there are still some shadows from this tree on those panels,” Cameron said as he examined the power station he’d set up. This is one of the challenges of solar — any amount of shade will reduce the amount of power the panels can generate.

Cameron explained that although Bluetti made the setup, the photovoltaics on the panels are from SunPower.