Solar-Mobility is the open community for solar-powered e-bikes, trikes, campers and everything else that moves on sunlight. Browse real builds, share yours, go further.
Community builds
3 Wheels Clean Motion Zbee – A 230 kg Electric Trike from Sweden What is the smallest, lightest vehicle that can still carry three people through a city, with a roof over their heads? The Swedish company Clean Motion… 
4 Wheels Stella Lux – The Energy-Positive Family Car Two years after their first family solar car, the students of Solar Team Eindhoven set themselves an even bolder target: a car that, over a year,… 
Planes Solar Impulse 2 – Flying Around the World on Sunlight A revolutionary step in solar-powered aviation, Solar Impulse 2 (HB-SIB) represents the perfect balance between lightweight design, advanced batteries, and clean solar energy. Solar Impulse 2… 
Planes Solar Riser – The First Human Flight on Solar Power (1979) Every big story starts small. Long before Solar Impulse 2 flew around the world, a man in California flew half a mile at 12 metres above… 
4 Wheels VéLorean – A Side-by-Side Solar Tandem Quad Most solar tandems put one rider behind the other on a tall, tippy frame. Olivier wanted something else: a vehicle where two people pedal side by… 
2 Wheels DIY Off-Grid Solar E-Bike by Andreas Lemmer Not every solar bike needs panels on the bike. Andreas Lemmer from Portugal went the other way and built a tiny off-grid charging station just for… 
5+ Wheels Királyrét Solar Railcar – A Forest Train Running on Sunshine North of Budapest, a small narrow-gauge forest railway climbs from the Danube town of Kismaros into the wooded Börzsöny hills to Királyrét. In summer, some of… 
Boats MobiCat – Switzerland’s Big Solar Lake Catamaran Lake Biel, at the foot of the Jura vineyards, is home to one of the world's pioneering big solar ships. MobiCat entered regular service with the… 
3 Wheels · Trailer Solartaxi – The First Trip Around the World by Solar Car Some people dream of driving around the world. Louis Palmer, a Swiss schoolteacher from Lucerne, dreamed of doing it without a drop of fuel. In 2004… How it works
The guide · preorder
Everything you need to build your own solar-powered e-bike: choosing panels, wiring, charge controllers and batteries, explained step by step by the community.
Solar charging, explained
Solar e-bikes, pedelecs, trikes and campers all work on the same idea: a solar panel turns daylight into electricity, a charge controller feeds it safely into the battery, and every hour of sun adds range. Here is the short version.
A pedelec only assists while you pedal (in the EU up to 25 km/h and 250 W); most people simply call it an e-bike. A solar e-bike either carries its own solar panel on the bike, the rack or a trailer, or it is a normal electric bike charged with solar power at home. Both ride on sunshine instead of the grid.
For a typical 36 V or 48 V e-bike battery, plan on a 100–200 W solar panel. Either the panel charges the battery directly through an MPPT charge controller with a boost converter, or it fills a small power station and you plug in your normal charger. In full summer sun, a 400–500 Wh battery is full in about a day.
Range depends on capacity in watt-hours (Wh): a pedelec uses roughly 7–15 Wh per kilometre, depending on terrain and assist level. Most e-bike batteries are lithium-ion (NMC); for campers, trikes and trailers many solar builders prefer LiFePO4, which is safer, lasts thousands of cycles and copes well with daily partial charging. Keep the battery cool and never charge a damaged pack.
Lightweight flexible solar panels fit racks, cargo bikes and trike roofs; rigid glass panels give more watts per euro on a solar bike trailer or a camper. Rule of thumb: in good sun, every 100 W of panel adds around 20–40 km of assisted riding per day.
On adventures like the Sun Trip, riders often cover more than 100 km a day on solar power alone: the panel charges while you ride and during breaks, so the battery rarely runs empty. The real gain is independence from sockets – at the campsite, on the mountain pass and on long days off-grid.
Most builds in this community are DIY: a standard e-bike or a conversion kit, a 100–300 W panel, an MPPT controller matched to the battery voltage, fuses and good connectors. Our guide Ride on Sunshine walks you through panels, wiring, charge controllers and batteries step by step.
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A community of riders and tinkerers driven by a single mission: maximising range through solar energy. From Europe to every continent.
The open community for solar-powered e-bikes, trikes, campers and everything else that moves on sunlight. Browse real builds, share yours, go further.
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