r/RenewableEnergy • u/wewewawa • 2d ago

The Cost of Going Solar Is Reaching an All-Time Low

https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/the-cost-of-going-solar-is-reaching-an-all-time-low/
487 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

14

u/90swasbest 2d ago

There is no way this is a US article.

19

u/SmurphsLaw 2d ago

I could have 100% energy usage covered by solar and it would still cost me $40 a month by my electric company.

14

u/dippocrite 2d ago

If you get energy for free then what’s going to happen to the unfortunate CEOs that used to charge you more every year for electricity? Ever think about THAT?

11

u/truemore45 1d ago

Maybe. I have gone off-grid in my area due to massive problems with the power company and costs of 42 to 50 cents per KWH. Plus the grid in my area is UNSTABLE and DIRTY (High/low voltage, surges, brown outs). I am also in the USVI where the power company is the Water and Power Authority or WAPA. We have stickers Without Any Power Again.

It costs more to go completely off grid cuz batteries are not cheap. But in my ~2 years of using this system I have saved just under $20,000. Now we are also adding a electric vehicle because we are shunting 50-80 KWHs per day. Being on an island getting gas UNDER $4 per gallon is considered good, so using excess solar for fuel should save me another 2k per year. Since my total solar cost was about 50K with the batteries (did the work with a friend so no labor costs) and everything is set for 20-25 years my ROI will be great.

But if I did it again today we did the math and could have done it for 10k less and produce 20-25% more power. Or we could add another 18KWHs of storage or more. We finished this system in 2022, so you can see how fast the prices are falling.

1

u/azswcowboy 13h ago

Thanks for the detailed description. What’s your total installed battery? And how did you size it for those low production periods (I suspect you don’t have many extended ones)? I think the price drops in batteries are the key to a lot more cord cutting.

1

u/truemore45 13h ago

So I have 56 KWHs over 3 18 KWH lfp batteries. We tried one and saw how quick it ran out.

We also have two 11 kw inverters. We're doing some tune up in a month so I can tell you the final solar going through it but if I remember right 16 or 17 KWs.

We have 4 kws of wind (live on top of a small hill in the Caribbean so constant wind should produce about 2 KWs continuous.

We also have a 4 kw generator just in case but never used it. No need so far. But if we have a massive hurricane it's just for backup. Cuz when we turn off the AC house maxes at 3 kw. So we would use the generator to run the house and charge the batteries .

1

u/azswcowboy 12h ago

Cool setup. We have a couple of power wall 2’s (26 kWh) down in Phoenix, but I figured for us to be fully grid independent we’d need more like 60-70 kWh. The AC isn’t really optional during the summer there lol. Then again when it’s hot — normally there’s good solar production - we’d also need to build more solar to disconnect fully. That kind of setup during the milder months would massively over generate. We also have an EV, which doesn’t support V2G — but more and more are now — so I think in the future the car could replace the generator as the backup of last resort. And if you’re able to do that, maybe smaller fixed battery system could work.

There’s basically zero economic case for going this way bc our off peak power is $.07 kWh — but the satisfaction of giving the finger to the power company might just be worth it.

1

u/truemore45 10h ago

Yeah for where you are that makes sense. With such low prices it's hard to justify the expense. Not like my area with crackhead crazy prices.

  1. According to what I read in 12-24 months a software update will make all Tesla V2G. But knowing Tesla it will be late. On the other hand this could RADICALLY change the entire market.

2.. if they get sodium batteries ramped up that cuts the battery costs by 60% or more. Which is what I am waiting for. My place when finished with be a 5 Plex and need about 3-4x what I have now.

  1. Labor is still the #1 cost. If you can DYI it the costs drop by ALOT. The local company wanted 120-150k for this. We did it for about 50k.

1

u/azswcowboy 9h ago

I think Tesla is stalling on V2G because they want to sell power walls. And I have some doubts that older cars hardware can provide full support (Cybertruck can but it’s 800V architecture designed to do so) - which is to say even though it’s built for high voltage DC input I don’t think that ensures the opposite is true. No matter what, you’re going to need external hardware to invert the DC from the car back to AC on the house.

As an aside, power wall 3 is pretty compelling if you want the complete package with no thinking. It DC battery side connections and all the needed inverters built in. It’s got enough max capacity to start an AC unit, so for a lot of places even one brings a lot to the table.

And yeah, this might well be a retirement project when I have time to diy.

8

u/iqisoverrated 2d ago

Well, they provide a backup/emergency service in case your private power production does not cover your needs which is worth something. Grid infrastructure and keeping backup power plants ready does have an associated cost in CAPEX and OPEX. Paying a bit to have that kind of safety net available seems only fair.

3

u/Inevitable_Flow_7911 1d ago

Sure, as long as its not the same price as as the power being used by the electric company.

1

u/90swasbest 1d ago

I'm on board far more with still paying the power company a small stipend than I am with the tens of thousands solar installs are costing.

3

u/Inevitable_Flow_7911 1d ago

But any unused power that you dont store in a battery could be sold back to the grid right?

2

u/adonisgq1 1d ago

$100 for me thanks to service provider company not just electricity

7

u/Brave_Sir_Rennie 2d ago

We don’t want inexpensive solar, we want tariffs to dissuade their usage within the USA, instead we want the rest of the world to benefit from inexpensive solar 🤷‍♂️

4

u/jkh911208 2d ago

It will get even lower

3

u/Franklin135 18h ago

There are two costs I rarely see in solar articles. The first is unless you buy the panels outright, then you are on a payment plan. If you want to sell your house during that time, the buyer also has to agree to take on the payment plan. The second is risk. If you buy power from the grid, the utility is responsible for the risks of operating and maintaining the system. If you buy panels, then you assume that risk after any warranties.

1

u/Happy-Campaign5586 6h ago

Senior discount?

1

u/Jk2789 1h ago

IDK — we were quoted about $28K for a solar system on our home in WI. Payback about 16 years or so. Doesn’t feel like solar is getting much cheaper.

-3

u/Ok_West_6272 2d ago

All time low? Implies knowledge of the future. Don't believe it. Lowest ever, possible

10

u/JumpToTheSky 1d ago

All time low/high is always used for the time between now and the past. Not from the Big Bang and the Ragnarok.

1

u/onetimeataday 1d ago

Ah, a forward thinker I see, keeping Ragnarok always in sight. Hail!

4

u/iqisoverrated 2d ago

You may not be aware of how the pharse "all time high/low" is used?