jdc1 wrote:
I'm going to weigh in on solar. I have an all-electric, 3,000 square foot home. I have no electric bill. I have a plug-in Prius. I will soon have an electric car, replacing the Prius. I have not paid for electricity in over 8 years. PG&E actually owes me money (which I do not care about). I have an 8.2K solar system on my roof. With net metering and grid connectivity, I do not worry about anything. Power outage? I just start my Honda generator I have for camping. My initial investment was $15,000. My return on investment (ROI) was just over 4 years (50 months). I will have saved over $100,000 in electric costs in 25 years (plus any increases of PG&E Costs). My system will last in excess of 40 years. All parts are warrantied for 25 years. Panasonic, the panel manufacture, has been around since 1918, so I do not see them disappearing anytime soon. Enphase, the micro-inverter manufacture, is a worldwide Fortune 500 corporation. There is no maintenance per se. I hook my RV brush to a hose. Climb up my extension ladder and brush off the dust and dirt twice a year. It takes less than 10 minutes. I can monitor each panel separately through my phone or computers. If I ever needed to replace a panel or micro-inverter, it requires removing 4 nuts and unplugging the panel. Yes....it is that simple. 95% of solar panels are recyclable, more than a car.
Solar is here to stay. Electric cars will become the norm. It may take some time, but, it will happen. Somewhere along the line, a newer source of energy will replace solar, hydro, wind, fossil fuels, geo thermal, ect. My guess is hydrogen.
So where does your electricity come from when the sun isn't up? And more importantly, who pays for it?
You do realize the actual fuel is only a small part of the cost of providing a KWH at a house. Effectively, your neighbors are subsidizing your electric bill.
When houses with solar are 0.1% of houses, govt initiatives like this work because they are so small as to be irrelevant.
Germany has taken it further and now has electric prices that are around 3-4 times as high as the USA. Australia is facing blackouts when the sun doesn't shine. They are then buying large battery banks at huge expense because the spot price of electricity has gone crazy as they give solar first dibs to sell power undermining traditional plants, so it artificially creates higher prices from traditional plants.
So far lots of folks saying the article is wrong but not providing any factual data to refute it.