Comments | ford_prefect42: On a rare positive note:

ford_prefect42

On a rare positive note:

Aug 22, 2014 22:25

A conversation on facebook resulted in me calculating the payback time of rooftop PV installations in Maryland. I am a little shocked to discover that they come VERY close to amortizing! That means that in sunnier climes, they most likely *do* amortize! That means that PV might just be ready for primetime FINALLY (after being five years from it ( Read more... )

Comments 8

ford_prefect42 August 23 2014, 05:28:23 UTC

Oh... oops, I forgot that that was specifically excluding installation, which is generally as expensive as the system.

coercedbynutmeg August 23 2014, 05:49:41 UTC

I wonder if they make sense in Central CA or if people are only doing it because of direct incentives. I saw quite a few of them when we lived in the SJV, but electricity was expensive, ranging from 15 to 38 cents a kwh (this was '07-'10). I see a lot fewer of them on the Central Coast (probably too foggy).

ford_prefect42 August 23 2014, 16:21:51 UTC

In '07-'10, they *definitely* didn't make sense. Module prices have been dropping at 20-30% per year. Even at $.38/kwh, PV made NO sense prior to about last year.

level_head October 16 2014, 05:32:51 UTC

Subsidized prices, of course. The solar industry is up in arms because the subsidies are largely scheduled to end this year. It's not fair, they say.

Incidentally, did you allow for varying daylight, weather, and sun angle assumptions?

Happy Birthday, sir!

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

ford_prefect42 October 16 2014, 13:23:25 UTC

Thank you!

I used the department of energy electricity generation calculator for that location. That's supposed to account for all of that. I'd have to do more research to see how well it does it. Seemed like it should have been good enough for a back-of-the-envelope.

Yeah, *heavily* subsidized prices, at all levels. That's one of the things that really bugs on me about the whole PV push, Sure, it may make sense for a homeowner to allow the government to pay for half of the cost of installing a system that was built by a subsidized factory so that they can sell electricity at a *heavily* subsidized rate to the utilcos, but what all that means is that there's *no way* that it makes sense on it's own merits!

And the "the technology is in it's infancy" argument is.... well, it's bullshit. Am I the only one that remembers those solar calculators they were handing out like popcorn in the late 70s/early 80s?

And what's the reasonable argument for ending the feed-in tariff subsidy again?

Thread 7