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Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

cleantechnica.com

51–60 of 166 posts

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#51
post #23

I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw. So far it's covered about 70% of my usage and 5.7 Mwh. I don't have a full year of data yet so I expect that number to grow as it includes the summer months. I drive an EV and this includes the car.

>I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw.

This is the problem still in the US. Even at ~$0.23/kwh delivered in the northeast, you're looking at an ROI of nearly five years. Fine if you can float that kind of cash to feel better about yourself, but the economics just aren't there for most people, especially in cheaper parts of the country where rates are ~$0.12. Even financing you're looking at a monthly payment equal to or greater than an electric bill. Of course if you have the time to amortize it you'll come out ahead, but there's simply no cheap solution that can actually save real money out of pocket in any reasonable amount of time beyond theoretical future savings on paper. It will never be a true solution without massive subsidisation that reduces out of pocket to a 1-2 year horizon.

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#52

With oil prices and wars, the adoption for renewables and not just solar should accelerate to wean the world off oil.

I've half jokingly said it before, but I think by overall impact Trump and Putin's sheer chaos is doing an order of magnitude more to transition the EU to green energy than anything else that was done deliberately to fight climate change lmao. People don't give a fuck until gasoline is 2€ per liter.

Some EU countries, at least Croatia, Hungary, Spain and Greece lowered gas prices to pre Iran war levels. I wish instead EU would lower tariffs on EVs. Xiaomi SU7 would get 45% total duty.

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#54

With oil prices and wars, the adoption for renewables and not just solar should accelerate to wean the world off oil.

Yeah more dependency on china! Nothing to backfire, no Chinese influence at all!

Really ? One doesnt needs China to produce electricity once its installed.

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#56

With oil prices and wars, the adoption for renewables and not just solar should accelerate to wean the world off oil.

Yeah more dependency on china! Nothing to backfire, no Chinese influence at all!

Is buying the means to produce energy from China worse than buying energy directly from Russia?

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#57

With oil prices and wars, the adoption for renewables and not just solar should accelerate to wean the world off oil.

Yeah more dependency on china! Nothing to backfire, no Chinese influence at all!

Hard to call it influence when the panels, once installed, just work and slowly degrade over the course of years.

There are more immediate ways for China to influence Europe.

Meanwhile the recent oil debacle showed how fragile a system it is to have fossil fuels shipped across the planet.

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#58
post #23

I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw. So far it's covered about 70% of my usage and 5.7 Mwh. I don't have a full year of data yet so I expect that number to grow as it includes the summer months. I drive an EV and this includes the car.

>I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw. This is the problem still in the US. Even at ~$0.23/kwh delivered in the northeast, you're looking at an ROI of nearly five years. Fine if you can float that kind of cash to feel better about yourself, but the economics just aren't there for most people, especially in cheaper parts of the country where rates are ~$…

Is a 5 year ROI really that crazy? Seems very reasonable considering lifespan of solar is more like 15-20 years (or more).

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#59
post #23

I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw. So far it's covered about 70% of my usage and 5.7 Mwh. I don't have a full year of data yet so I expect that number to grow as it includes the summer months. I drive an EV and this includes the car.

>I installed a solar system at my home in Massachusetts for 17k last year (after tax credits), 7.82 kw. This is the problem still in the US. Even at ~$0.23/kwh delivered in the northeast, you're looking at an ROI of nearly five years. Fine if you can float that kind of cash to feel better about yourself, but the economics just aren't there for most people, especially in cheaper parts of the country where rates are ~$…

getting your money back in 5 years is pretty good, or am I missing something?

That's 15% yearly

Re: Solar Energy Saves Europeans $135M a Day

#60

With oil prices and wars, the adoption for renewables and not just solar should accelerate to wean the world off oil.

Yeah more dependency on china! Nothing to backfire, no Chinese influence at all!

China might produce the most panels at volume but this isn't a hardline monopoly like being able to cut off oil pipelines. We can produce panels ourselves if we _need_ to (as a coalition of friendly countries), it will of course be more expensive, but expensive is better than not possible.

Also, the more panels we already have, the less reliant we are. Energy doesn't stop flowing because deliveries of new panels stop during a conflict. You just pause expansion. A very different scenario to fuel reserves running dry in weeks.

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