Going back a few years when solar was $5 a watt it made little economic sense to install solar. Now the average solar panel price is as little as $3.20 per watt before claiming any solar incentives.
The rapid decline in solar prices within the last 10 years has created the solar boom we know today. Incentives such as net metering, federal solar tax credit, state solar tax credits and utility rebates have driven the price of solar to low prices unimaginable a few years ago. Is installing solar panels for home right for you?
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Solarman says
“Going back a few years when solar was $5 a watt it made little economic sense to install solar. Now the average solar panel price is as little as $3.20 per watt before claiming any solar incentives.”
For “just” solar PV panel pricing, even with tariffs, you can find pallet pricing on 300 to 330W panels in the $0.85 to $1.00 per watt, installation makes the equation from $2.78 to around $3.25 installed without the ITC. The simple ROI method has proven to be a lousy predictor of the payoff time for the system. Every time the electric utility decommissions an old plant or builds a new one, the ratepayers will see an increase in their electric rates. Every time rates go up the ROI goes down. Simple things like replacing old appliances with new energy star appliances can make a big difference in how much energy the home requires every day.
Now many utilities are going to court to “get” rid of net metering and go to “net billing”. The credit for “net billing” is the wholesale electricity rate, giving the solar PV home a 4 to 5 cent “credit” for excess generation. Then the utilities are moving towards a TOU rate schedule. This (Time Of Use) rate schedule raises the rates for a kWh of electricity during the TOU period. This period is usually after the sun sets or late in the afternoon. It was common practice to charge a peak use charge from 11 AM to 6 PM. Now the period has been “adjusted” to 3 PM to 9 or 10PM. The utilities have “effectively” brought the price down for the solar PV excess generation to 4 cents/kWh from the normal 12 to 14 cents/kWh. The utilities continue to charge YOU the non solar PV ratepayer the retail price, plus there is no monitoring of when you use solar PV generated power or how much. The utility is charging YOU the retail rate with the attached “fuel” charge per kWh on every kWh of solar PV you use. Then at the TOU period of the day the price per kWh of electricity goes up for EVERY ratepayer, sometimes from 5% to 10% higher than the off peak retail rate.