Berlin-based climate research institute Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has released a new study indicating that, in the last decade, the cost of solar power has dropped by 87 percent, and the cost of battery storage by 85 percent.

Solar power and storage prices have dropped almost 90%::undefined

JJROKCZ
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41Y

Bruh I got quoted 50k in St. Louis last year, would take decades for roi

partial_accumen
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21Y

$50k is a pretty large installation, 18kw-22kw I’d guess for solar only (no battery storage). I’m hoping thats only a max of 100% replacement of electricity sourcing (meaning essentially no net grid consumption after you’re installed). What’s the price per KWh for electricity delivered to your door in St Louis? Its gotta be pretty crazy cheap if you’re that large a consumer of electricity and you’re paying in cash with no battery, and still looking at multiple decades of ROI with the US federal tax credit.

JJROKCZ
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11Y

I don’t remember the kWh specs and price off hand but a decent portion of the cost was that I’m in a 1.5 story that faces S and have a lot of small roofs rather than one large roof so it’d be a bunch of panels that didn’t have full sun most of the day. Which is true of all hundred houses in my subdivision as well. Basically build of the house made this difficult or impossible

partial_accumen
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11Y

Does that mean a substantial portion of the $50k quoted was setting up lots of panels is many small spaces, (because of the broken up nature of the roof) and that perhaps the system was oversized its electrical capacity because of the assumption that it would only be fractionally efficient because of the substandard angles and shading? I could see that. Certainly roof designs and even large mature trees can make solar unfeasible in those situations…

JJROKCZ
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11Y

Maybe, I was so mad I didn’t even get more quotes, I should really do so but I was expecting 10-20 at most and hearing 50 kinda put me off the prospect for a while. Decided to spend effort on other home improvement we could see instead

@scarabic@lemmy.world
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21Y

That can’t be for a home. If it was it was predatory nonsense. It should be a 7 or 8 year ROI with a 20-30 year service life.

Maybe not all areas have much competition driving prices down? I’m in sunny hippie California where every other house has solar.

JJROKCZ
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11Y

1800sq ft home, my power bill is a few hundred in the summer, I feel there just isn’t any competition here there only 2-3 companies doing it and they’re all small

@scarabic@lemmy.world
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11Y

It could be that those companies are evil, or perhaps their own prices are just very high because the industry isn’t scaled up in your area. Maybe they have a really hard time hiring equalities installers, and have to ship in parts from far away.

It was like that in California 20 years ago but it has changed enormously. When you drive down the street, how many houses have solar? It’s probably 3 in 10 here. I get nonstop Facebook ads and can name about 10 companies. With this comes lower prices. But there are still cheats out there. Never work with a “no money up front” company unless you only want to enjoy 10% of the benefit of the panels. For some it may be the only option but these companies are shysty as hell.

JJROKCZ
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11Y

There almost 0 solar houses here, 1 in a hundred maybe. A few businesses have been doing it lately, I’ve seen 2 gas stations and several schools in the area do it. I’d like to get it done before my backwards ass state makes it illegal or something

@scarabic@lemmy.world
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11Y

Ouch that sounds rough.

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