Comments on: Twitter Co-Founder’s Parents Go Solar

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:13:00 +0000

The cost of a solar system needs to be measured not against today’s electricity rate but against the average rate over the life of the system.

Most cost analyses are done using a 20 year time frame. That misses the 20+ years of almost free electricity the system will produce past that 20 year period. If you are paying 12 cents now and we have 3% inflation then over a 40 year period the average cost of electricity will be 20 cents.

By: science guru

science guru — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:05:00 +0000

Bob,
Your figures are exactly correct.
There are several considerations to factor into the true final cost of the system.
The federal tax credit is 30% of the installed cost of the system.
There are State tax credits in most States (Not sure what it is in their home state / not given).
There are also some utility companys that will contribute to the cost in the form of a rebate (these rebates are subject to tax as income/ a small percentage).
A big advantage to having solar energy installed on a business is the ability to take the accelerated depreciation deduction for capital asset purchases. This is not available to residential systems.
The average is somewhere around 50% of the cost is the true end price after you take into consideration all the incentives.
The average return on investment is less than ten years for residential and less than five years for a commercial installation.
Some States like Hawaii where utility rates are extremely high, the return on investment is much shorter.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 07:04:00 +0000

The last numbers that I saw put utility scale solar at $2.40/W.

A 25 kW is in the commercial range so about $4/W as of third quarter 2012.

$100k.

By: geoffderuiter

geoffderuiter — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:56:00 +0000

How much would the installed cost of a 25 kilowatt system be over there?