Well, from the sounds of it keeping what's in your freezer cold is not an issue in winter, even without electricity. My only idea regarding a freezer in the garage in the summer is to make sure the garage is well insulated. It would also help whatever other food storage and preps you may have in the garage too. (buckets, tinned goods, batteries) Solar generated electricity sounds like a logical means to keep the freezer running if the shtf. It's quiet, less likely to draw attention.

I know you said you didn't care so much about losing your fridge, but here is low tech idea that works quite well. Good for keeping milk and eggs and beer cold. 😉

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/off-grid-shtf-survival-ancient-technology-for-refrigeration_09252011

Keep things cool in my bug out place isn't a problem in the summer. Have a small stream, not big enough to put a hydro turbine on it, but big enough, that I've already dug out a pool, and store food there already when we go there to relax. As long as the packaging is water tight, the water comes from a spring, at the top of a hill behind my property, and that keeps everything cool enough.

But you did raise a good point about insulation of the garage during the summer. It does get warm in there a bit, I'll have to think about that.

We bought a brand new fridge last year that we placed in our unheated back room. It didn't like the cold and quit - the freezing temperatures messed up the thermostat. We also have a very old freezer out there - probably 30 years (or more) old and it just keeps running tickity-boo. I know it probably uses more electricity but it's a tank and will probably outlive my newer freezer. I also read somewhere on another board that they had a power outage and after 1 day their brand new freezer was completely defrosted. It didn't have nearly as much insulation as the older models...they just don't make them like they used to!

All that to point out that you could have a problem and to keep an eye on your freezer until you are sure it is functioning as it should in sub-zero weather. Also it's a good idea to save some plastic pop or juice bottles and line the bottom of the freezer with them so if the power does go out you have some extra staying power. I know they would be better on the top but that's really inconvenient! 🙂

I would love to hear if the solar would work.

I see two problems with solar for the freezer, first, you will need a pretty big inverter...take the watts rating listed on the freezer and then multiply that by 3. This is the starting wattage, or what power draw the freezer needs to start the motor/compressor. Secondly, power storage would be an issue. The amount of batteries you would need to keep the freezer running for any substantial amount of time would be quite costly. I would seriously look at what it will take before committing to a solar setup for the freezer.
Here is how I plan to handle long term outages as far as freezer/fridges(2) are concerned. I have a 7800 peak watt genset that will be run for about 2 hours a day twice a day. One running will rechill the freezer and 1 fridge to get them back down to temp. The second running will rechill the second fridge, run the well pump to refill water containers, charge batteries, laptops, etc.
This runs the generator for 4 hours a day at less than 50% capacity. 5 gallons of gas will run me like this for about a week. A full tank in the generator plus 3 5 gallon tanks in storage will last me a month. Of course, if an outage occurs in the winter, plastic storage bins in a snowbank will preclude most of the need for the generator so the gas in storage should last 2 months or more. I looked into solar and wind for this application and the inverter size and battery needs quickly pointed me in another direction.

that is really helpful to know. I like the gen setup. And it really isn't a lot of extra fuel that you need to save to keep it running for a few months, if for a whole summer.

Of course the other option to reduce the need for a freezer is to learn to can your meat. Easy to do and learn - no need to worry about a power outage at all!