Posted on 07/06/2018 7:44:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Not a great analogy. Electric utilities are pretty tightly connected to government at many levels, are a local monopoly, and are naturally hostile to any direct competitor. Practically every owner of a residential property and every business in their service area is required by law to deal with them.
Or they can take a serious load off the power grid during the heat of the day in the summertime. At night, the power grid is still there. It doesn’t have to provide power 24/7 in order to be useful.
“Here is an example of rooftop solar that costs 30 cents a kilowatt-hour. A 5-kilowatt rooftop system costs about $21,000 installed. It will generate 7,000 kilowatt-hours per year. If it is financed over 20 years at 8% interest, the annual payment will be $2,139. The cost per kilowatt-hour is $2,139/7,000 = $0.306, or 30.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.”
Excellent. Finally someone does the math on rooftop solar. I have read probably 100 Wall Street Journal articles on this subject and have yet to see the actual pre-tax-subsidy cost of rooftop solar even mentioned, let alone calculated.
Solar, even with all costs and tax incentives combined, runs about $20,000 for a 6kW system.
Doing the math, and not the Sunny Day Scenario the solar companies tout, it comes to 25 years for payback.
That’s the same payback period that solar has been for over 30 years.
Solar is great for remote locations, but for common residential it’s a financial loser.
Pretty ain’t they ?
The actual costs of wind and solar energy never account for the high taxes we all pay.
From Newsweek: “Over the past 35 years, wind energy – which supplied just 4.4% of US electricity in 2014 – has received US$30 billion in federal subsidies and grants.”
Take that average $20,000 cost for a 6kW system, and add back the 30% tax subsidy, and you can see that solar costs are $30,000 for that system. We all pay for it. It ain’t free.
Many Fire Departments, mine for instance, will not fight a fire on a dwelling with solar panels, they let it burn and just contain the fire. The issue is both the threat of electrocution and also dangerous smoke/gas from the units themselves.
“””... the ‘cost’ of creating electricity - is born by the individual citizen. “””
Only if there no subsidies. Virtually all solar installations are subsidized by your neighbors and friends.
The plastics must be hell to firefighters. The Silicon is a major lung hazard. Breath it in and die slowly.
I wouldn’t risk it, either.
“the ‘cost’ of creating electricity - is born by the individual citizen.”
Not when there is still a 30% tax subsidy that we all pay for.
Retail is less accurate but it doesn't matter much as long as you compare apples to apples. In California the high retail cost of electricity is mostly government taxes and fees but it still does reflect the huge carbon footprint, not as much the energy production but the wasteful government spending of those taxes on importing illegals and employing Democrats.
My daughter who works in a related field.
You're right - I wasn't thinking about all the BS tax incentives...
You and CodeToad are right on this - I forgot about all the BS tax ‘incentives’...
Also note there is not a Democrat in sight. Democrats usually build these monstrosities in Republican backyards, not theirs.
I saw a short article (can't find it right now) a few months ago that broke down the cost of producing the materials necessary to make a wind turbine generator.
With the Mean Time Between Failure calculated into the equation, the wind turbine would never produce anywhere near the amount of energy that was required to make it.
Battery systems are too complex and expensive, and unless you are "off grid", offer no real benefit. Grid tied solar with "net metering" uses the grid as its battery for free. Living in Southern California, with some of the highest electricity rates in the country as well as extremely high insolation, solar makes a lot of sense.
While it may not seem fair for SDG&E to be forced to buy my "apples", it's kinda nice to finally screw them after being on the other side of the screw for decades. I use to average over $300/mo for power. Now when I settle up once a year, they pay me.
Each person considering solar has to "do the math" for their individual case. For my 7.2kw system, I essentially had the perfect opportunity.
1. I was already in the process of refinancing my home from a 30yr to a 15yr mortgage.
2. I live in an area with extremely high electricity rates.
3. I live in an area with extremely high insolation.
4. I had a brand new roof facing due south.
So I essentially replaced a $300/mo power bill with a $120/mo addition to my new 15 year mortgage. Day one, I was saving $180/month. That doesn't include rate increases, additional fees for transmission, nuclear plant decommissioning and other stuff that I no longer pay attention to, since they now pay me instead of vice versa.
My effective payback is 10 years, even though my out of pocket costs were reduced by $180/mo on day one.
pings
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