Navigation of a solar vehicle is provided by obtaining a target geographic destination for the vehicle having one or more photovoltaic solar arrays; obtaining configuration data defining a target solar vector relative to a reference frame of the vehicle; identifying a current geographic positioning of the vehicle via a geo-positioning system of the vehicle, including a current geographic location and a current geographic orientation of the vehicle; identifying a current solar vector relative to the reference frame of the vehicle; and during at least a portion of a solar day, outputting a steering command for the vehicle for an indirect path from the current geographic location toward the target geographic destination that is based, at least in part, on a comparison of the current solar vector to the target solar vector. The steering command can be presented to a human operator or programmatically implemented by an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle.