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Peru To Provide Free Solar Power To Its Poorest Citizens
An anonymous reader writes "Peru is looking to provide free electricity to over 2 million of its poorest citizens by harvesting energy from the sun. Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino said that the National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program will provide electricity to poor households through the installation of photovoltaic panels."
AZ is great for generation, but homeowners would need a very large system to offset those ACs that run "24 hours a day". Because of the power demands, I don't think AZ can get away with having high electric rates without bankrupting its citizens. A quick Google search says that AZ customers in Phoenix pay around 9 cents per kWH.
In California, it's much easier to make the numbers work. We also have a lot of sun, but we pay up to 3 times what AZ does for power which makes the return on investment faster. We have less demands because the temperature is more moderate. We can fully offset our usage with a pretty reasonably sized system. I paid around $14,000 to save around $2000 per year. The system just about fully offsets our yearly power usage. I'd like to say I get the most satisfaction from being "green" but really - what's priceless is not paying out the nose to our crooked utility company.