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Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA (International Energy Agency) (from 2020)
(www.carbonbrief.org)
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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Technology
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its still costing me 30k AUD to put in a decent solar and battery system, i mean prices have come down but they are still well beyond what is affordable by the avg person.
That's the catch. The generation isn't the expensive part. The storage is.
That's the thing, without the Battery it's not cost effective, we'll pay more for the system then it would recover. Our peak usage is at night when the sun is not there.
My utility gives a 50% credit on excess generation. Thing there is the utility is still the one taking responsibility for having the capacity and scalability to respond to variation in demand and production. When I was getting quotes, adding storage would have doubled the cost of the system for a day or two worth of storage. Probably would cost double again to have a system that would keep up through the winter.
Yeah we get nothing from any excess power generation that goes back into the grid. It used to be worth it years and years ago but they stopped because it was costing the energy generators too much.
wouldn’t most people’s peak usage be in the afternoon when the air conditioner is running?
Not with us, after 4pm is our peak usage sun won't be up for much longer
I paid $5k recently without the battery - it's not just affordable, it's cheaper than drawing power from the grid. Pay off on the upfront investment will be about 7 years and it has an expected life of 30+ years (we paid extra for long lasting panels).
Battery prices will come down - in the mean time it's still better to just get that power from the grid.
Must be nice
I'm curious what sized system you are putting in that costs that much.
An 8kw solar system usually costs a bit over $8k and at least in many areas seems to have a ROI of a bit over 6 years at most and often much less.
6.2kwh solar panels 14kwh battery
that battery is way too big for the energy produced by the solar array
Yet the battery could produce more savings than the solar.
Electricity prices can vary by time of day, as demand varies. Charge it at cheap-o-clock, use it at normal times, you make savings.
It can produce more savings sure in terms of electricity costs, but when including capital, solar is presently much more cost effective. In my area some 6.8kw panels have a four year ROI.
This is entirely regional though. The further you are from the equator, the more seasonal variation there is in sunlight levels, and heating/cooling loads. Around here our solar production is minimized during the season when our energy needs are maximized. We also don’t have variable rate billing, though we only get partial credit for excess generation, so battery storage will never pay for itself until something changes.
95% of what we generate during the goes to the battery and once fully charged we can go days without needing to recharge it
and then your solar panels are doing anything for you in days. you seem to have been offered a very bad deal. I suggest you find other company to analyse your case
Nope that's literally the only way you can make solar viable here. We get no credits or anything for the excess power we generate and we use hardly any power during the day. So literally any excess power the panels generate goes to waste. And if we go to a smaller unit the money we save is negligible again
You do get paid for unused solar, it's just less than it used to be. The idea is that you're meant to shift your loads to the day. Even without the additional feed in, 6.6kw only costs 2.5k and pays itself off within 4 years if you're shifting your loads to the solar peak
Also, it feels like you've installed an overly big battery system.
Panels and batteries are subsidised here in Victoria and the panels only costs 2500aud for a 6.6k system. Most people spend 20k on batteries or less
How can we shift our peak power use when no one is there to use it?. Again we did all the math even with the company and we all came to the same figure. If we did solar only then the system would cost us more in the long term as we still need to draw power during our peak usage. Battery was the only way to make it viable.
You can get devices which hook into your smart meter and measure energy usage, and optimise for that.
The reason you don't get much feedin anymore (unless you're a Virtual power plant, at times more power is needed), is because previously, people were just generating too much excess power during the day, and forcing non-renewables to turn on again at night (so it was pointless). Ideally, you should be trying to export 0kwh back to the grid