Quote:
Originally Posted by docwra
I know a few people who only pay a few bucks for electricity for a few months of the year by using a powerwall and solar, but they invariably live in relatively new houses and have enough money to invest in the tech to start with.
Id imagine more people will go down this route as tech improves and cost decreases.
The lack of solar on commercial/industrial buildings has to be down to Big Oil trying to extract every last $ IMO, when the technology is there and cost isnt an issue its weird it isnt being taken advantage of.
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That's exactly the rub. Those flush with disposable income can afford such technology and can invest upfront and wait it out several years until they actually start getting a positive ROI. Those without the disposable income find it increasingly difficult to pay the bills, let alone pay a lot of money upfront for a promise of better savings in their power bill down the road. It all really depends on your local situation. We thought about solar, but we're also are likely downsizing and moving in a few years. When we do, maybe the new house would get the solar as it wouldn't make much financial sense to do it now.
In the U.S., I think solar makes up only about 5% of energy production. With falling panel prices, better storage, bloated "green energy" incentive legislation that someone else's grandkids will be paying for, it may make sense for more to go this route, just as you said.
But even with the average installed price of a solar panel system being about 1/2 of what it was 10 years ago (25K now vs 50K), it's still more expensive upfront than some people generally are apt to spend. Not even including that $12K powerwall. Those increased federal incentives may help, but that family of 4 on the lower rungs of the middle class or below certainly does not have solar on their radar at the moment. Current economic conditions see to that. At least for now, I still think of the solar industry as part of an all-of-the-above type of solution, as would be reliable, hybrid vehicles.
One thing I think that CAN help solar industry sell more is the ever increasing cost of electricity from the power companies. Increased demand for EV could easily make the cost of solar more attractive to more people. ROI is king. The faster you can show a positive ROI, the more acceptance it will gain.