There’s always new people looking into solar, and on discord, I thought it would be a good thread to point people in the right direction instead of repeating ourselves. Please feel free to add anything solar related.
Everyone asks if they should get solar
If you’re not going to DIY, then get quotes and also get estimates of how many MW you will produce over 25 years. Keep in mind panels will degrade over time and the ones I’m referencing degrades to 80% over 25 years. 550w Solar Panel Green Bank 96 Cells Mono Crystalline AU stock
It’s important to get estimates detailed for your area because everyone’s location is different
So let’s say you’ve been quoted $50k for a system that produces 30MW per year, the system will produce 750MW over 25 years
So the price divided by 25 year production, $50,000/750,000=0.066, this means it will cost you 6.6c/kw you produce over 25 years.
The same applies with batteries, except their life expectancy is cycles, normally rated with 6500 cycles but you need to check.
This means if you have a Tesla that charges 13kw 6500 times, it will store 84.5MW in its lifetime. So if it costs you $5k for a Tesla power wall, $5000/84500= 0.059, meaning it costs 5.9c/kw stored and discharged.
Hopefully this will help people understand their pricing better