Solar up and running
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@Mik said in Solar up and running:
Do you just send the power to the grid and get a break on your bill, or do you get to store your own power?
No storage, we just send the power back and get credit for it, to apply to future bills. The idea is that during the hot months when we use AC, we will not produce as much as we consume, but our credits will still give us a zero electricity bill.
@Horace said in Solar up and running:
@Mik said in Solar up and running:
Do you just send the power to the grid and get a break on your bill, or do you get to store your own power?
No storage, we just send the power back and get credit for it, to apply to future bills. The idea is that during the hot months when we use AC, we will not produce as much as we consume, but our credits will still give us a zero electricity bill.
You're going to produce quite a bit in the summer.
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@jon-nyc said in Solar up and running:
I’m thinking of putting a windmill on my balcony.
You’re going to produce quite a bit after eating tacos…
The Brad
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@jon-nyc said in Solar up and running:
I’m thinking of putting a windmill on my balcony.
You’re going to produce quite a bit after eating tacos…
@LuFins-Dad said in Solar up and running:
@jon-nyc said in Solar up and running:
I’m thinking of putting a windmill on my balcony.
You’re going to produce quite a bit after eating tacos…
Do you have a windmill?
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Thank you @Horace for helping to fight climate change. Personally, I have moved to a colder climate so as not to requires as much air conditioning electricity usage...one day you can be as dedicated as I am to the fight.
@89th said in Solar up and running:
Thank you @Horace for helping to fight climate change. Personally, I have moved to a colder climate so as not to requires as much air conditioning electricity usage...one day you can be as dedicated as I am to the fight.
I prefer to exist on the front lines, one or two degrees from spontaneous combustion, depending on whether Greta takes that extra private jet to the next climate summit. Facing death every day makes me feel alive.
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How is your solar doing @horace Did you buy the solar or are you leasing it? An interesting article about how the rush to lease solar to people may result in the collapse of the resident solar industry.
https://time.com/6565415/rooftop-solar-industry-collapse/
A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan.
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Still, the residential solar industry is floundering. In late 2023 alone, more than 100 residential solar dealers and installers in the U.S. declared bankruptcy, according to Roth Capital Partners—six times the number in the previous three years combined. Roth expects at least 100 more to fail. The two largest companies in the industry, SunRun and Sunnova, both posted big losses in their most recent quarterly reports, and their shares are down 86% and 81% respectively from their peaks in January 2021. (This isn’t because of an economy-wide trend; the S&P 500 has grown 26% over the same time period.) Sunnova is also under the microscope for having received a $3 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy while facing numerous complaints about troubling sales practices that targeted low-income and elderly homeowners. Another solar giant, SunPower, saw shares plunge 41% on Dec. 18 after it said that it may not be able to continue to operate because of debt issues. Sunlight Financial, a big player in the solar finance space, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October; it also faces a lawsuit alleging that the company made false and misleading statements about its financial well-being.
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It could get a lot worse before it gets better, with not just lost jobs, but near-total collapse of the current system. Some analysts, like Lezcano of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, think that the big, national players are going to have to fall apart for residential solar to become affordable in the U.S., and that in the future, the solar industry in the U.S. will look more like it does in Germany, where installations are done locally and there’s fewer door-to-door sales. -
I have decided it was a dumb decision. Hopefully it won’t make that much of a difference financially. I wouldn’t do it again.
@Horace said in Solar up and running:
I have decided it was a dumb decision. Hopefully it won’t make that much of a difference financially. I wouldn’t do it again.
If i may ask, why is that? Too long a pay back timing?
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It's not working as well as I'd wanted, financially. Also I'm too dependent on private electricity companies willing to buy the power back from me. I hadn't realized this was not a steady and guaranteed thing. I'm having to switch companies after my first year, because my previous company no longer offers their plan. The new one isn't quite as good. Who knows how that market will shape up over the 20 year life span of these panels.
Then the warrantee for the panels and the roof under them is only as good as the company that backs it, and the company is showing cracks. They recently lost their BBB accreditation.
