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US Projected To Lead the World In New Solar Installations This Year (computerworld.com)
Lucas123 writes: The U.S. solar market is expected to grow 120% this year, with 16GW of new solar power, more than double the record-breaking 7.3GW installed in 2015. The total operating solar PV capacity in the U.S. is expected to reach 25.6 gigawatts (billion watts or GW) of direct current (DC) by the end of the year, according to GTM Research's U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2015 Year in Review. When accounting for all projects (both distributed and centralized), solar accounted for 29.4% of new electric generating capacity installed in the U.S. in 2015, exceeding the total for natural gas for the first time and it will put the U.S. ahead of all other nations with regard to new solar installations for 2016.
Last year I called SolarCity, they are offering to install panels for "free" to your home, then sell you the power for less than you're paying now.
Sounds like a no-brainer, right? No up front cost, no maintenance, guaranteed power for less than you're paying now.
Why NOT say yes?
Except, they won't install in my area. They WILL install 2 miles away, because that is a different electric energy provider that gives bigger rebates than mine does (I live in a co-op that doesn't provide huge rebates and tax incentives).
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So it really comes down to the fact that all this solar makes sense only if you count on a whole pile of tax dollars.
Even utility scale solar, which I've looked at investing in purely from an investment point of view, requires tax dollars to make work.
http://www.absolutelysolar.com...
FIT Program Areas
FIT â" LADWP: The Department of Water and Powerâ(TM)s new solar Feed-In Tariff program. Buildings and land in the city of Los Angeles and parts of the Owens Valley are eligible.
Look at the very bottom of that page:
http://energy.gov/savings/ladw...
And there is the program, promising to pay FAR above the "going rate" of power.
So solar works, assuming you can count on the government money to keep flowing.
A few interesting points from the article:
1. Almost 40% of the distributed PV capacity in the U.S. is located in California. The next nine states after California account for another 44%, according to the EIA.
This is key because CA pays one of the highest kWh rates in the US (places like Hawaii are higher, but there aren't that many people there).
http://www.bls.gov/regions/wes...
San Francisco pays 40% higher energy prices on average than the rest of the US. So of COURSE solar makes more sense there. But it doesn't most other places.
California's leadership in distributed solar capacity is driven by a combination of factors, including high electricity prices, a large population, strong solar resources, and state policies and incentives that support solar PV, according to the EIA.
2. One of the factors spurring growth last year and this was the impending expiration of the U.S. government's solar investment tax credit (ITC). That measure, passed in 2008, offered a 30% tax credit for residential and business installations. It was due to expire this year, and the tax credit was supposed to drop to a more permanent 10%. In December, however, Congress passed a three-year extension on the 30% ITC.
So a crap load of tax dollars are propping this market up. It actually goes further than this. There are many state and Dept of Energy programs that further fix the rate of solar power to above market rates, to provide guaranteed returns for utility solar power.
http://energy.gov/public-servi...
Just a sample of some of the various programs to pay for solar and wind.
3. The total operating solar PV capacity in the U.S. is expected to reach 25.6 gigawatts (billion watts or GW) of direct current (DC) by the end of the year, according to GTM Research's U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2015 Year in Review. Last year, solar installations broke all previous records, but the amount was only 16% more than in 2014 with 7,260 GW of new DC solar power.
That sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, consider this:
In 2014, the United States generated about 4,093 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
So the new DC solar power being installed is 7.2 billion out of 4,093 billion total. It is nice, but we could install that much every year for the next 20 years and it wouldn't make a real dent in the total.
What is your current monthly bill?
Average $250 a month
What effective interest rate were they charging?
I can borrow from my house at 3.5%
What have you done to improve the energy efficiency of your home?
Replaced HVAC with a really good Trane 2 stage, 2 speed 16 SEER unit, cut $100 average off my bill overnight, best upgrade I ever did. For $17,000 (5 ton and 3 ton units, including everything inside and out), I get a colder house and $100 a month back in my pocket. And my old unit broke, so I had to spend money anyway.
Did you need to do any upgrades to your roof to make it viable?
No, I have a brand new roof as of 2 years ago, thanks to hail (and Allstate)
Generally speaking, rooftop solar is $3/W for a complete installed system
$3.50 a watt here, I've been quoted by three different companies, that is just the going rate. $35,000 for a 10KW system.
advantageous if your blended cost of electricity is $0.15/kWh or more at a minimum effective rate of return of 13%
I pay 10 cents per kWh and my cost is $5K more than your estimate. :) That is part of where it torpedoes.
If you are at a more risk tolerant and only need 8% return then you are good down to $0.10/kWh.
It is actually closer to 5%, given my install cost and my power cost. But even that might be worth doing, if I could get a 10 year net-metering guarantee.
But yes, the kicker is net metering.
Yep, that is what torpedoes it. There is no chance that net-metering will survive as it stands today. Taken to the logical conclusion, imagine if we all had solar enough to offset our annual bill, but that we needed the power company to provide power at night, but we all fed power back during the day. And we all had zero bills because of net-metering, yet expect the power company to provide a grid.
That will never happen of course, so somewhere between today and then it would have to change.
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In principle, I would LOVE to have solar power, how cool would it be to have clean free power from the sun! But it has to make financial sense, and it just doesn't.
BTW, to give you an idea, I live in a city of 250,000 people and there is a local solar association here. By their own count, a whole 150 homes in my city have put solar on the roof. Out of 250,000 people. It simply doesn't make sense here. I have never actually seen a solar install on a roof in person, only pictures on TV or the Internet. It just isn't done here.