The price of solar power has come down by a factor of 3 in the last 10 years to
about $1.50/watt if you buy panels from Amazon. If it continues at that rate in
another 10 years we'll all be saying things like "You'd be an idiot NOT to have
solar power installed on your house." its not like grid electricity has been
getting cheaper. In MA they raised our rates 30% this year which is still a
good deal regionally. Last I checked our electricity was $0.12/kwh plus
transmission/taxes/etc which I think is a pretty good deal all things
considered.
Solar hot water is technically an "alternative energy" source and is very
competitive. Payback usually considered about 3 years even in the frozen north.
I'm going to investigate it for our house as soon as we get a new roof and
heating/hot water system.
I ran the math the other day and with $2.89/gal heating fuel its cheaper to
heat with oil than electricity. Last winter at $0.11/kwh and $3.50/gal heating
fuel it was cheaper to use an electric space heater. Both are still cheaper
than $250/cord firewood but not cheaper than the 1/2 cord I got for free last
summer.
When we were at camp in November some of the sports left phones on the charger
overnight and combined with the inverter ran down the battery in Dad's Jeep to
the point it wouldn't start in the morning. In the spring I'm going to order a
100w solar panel with charge controller which will run about $190 on Amazon,
pair it with a big marine battery like I used to use to preheat my 240D and
we'll have enough power for our needs. The system is expandable up to 4 panels
should we want more capacity down the road.
-Curt
From: G Mann via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
To: Andrew Strasfogel <astrasfo...@gmail.com>; Mercedes Discussion List
<mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2014 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: Solar Power in Medicine Hat, Alberta, which has more
sunshine than Miami, FL
"We've run into regulatory knuckleheads," Clugston said. "It took way
longer than I thought."
[And I wager, a great deal more money, somehow funded by public taxation
income] ..
For alternate energy to work, It must produce enough to operate at a
profit, not the public dole.
It sounds nice, it looks "green", but, to date, the up front cost do not
pay back in income to investment in "alternate renewable energy".
If this project was a hotel, funded by city/county/state funds, and failed
to produce income it would be an unmitigated disaster and torn down.
Because it's touted as "Green Energy" it somehow is given a free pass on
ROI.
Reality trumps desire, yet again. Sorry to bear the sad news.
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