3 ms·
> $3-4,000 worth of solar panels Is this a useful metric in California? In the states where I have lived, the total installed system cost has always been the d
by runako 6y ago
> $3-4,000 worth of solar panels
Is this a useful metric in California? In the states where I have lived, the total installed system cost has always been the driver, and the panels typically are only one component of many there.
$3-$4k sounds reasonable until you realize that you need to spend $25k on top of that to be able to use your $4k of panels.
- danans 6y ago> $3-$4k sounds reasonable until you realize that you need to spend $25k on top of that to be able to use your $4k of panels. I doubt it. I installed a ~2.5kW system in CA 4 years ago, and all in it was like $6500 after the tax credits. Panel prices have dropped 16% since then, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if now the same system were around $4k including installation after tax credits.
- Gibbon1 6y agoI failed in that I didn't state my point. The point is the cost of an electric car is say $40,000 and the marginal costs to provide the power for it is $4,000. So the ratio is 10 to 1. One could argue and say it's 5 to 1 and I won't die on that hill. Good argument that supplying electricity doesn't change the economics much. It's definitely true that for solar the total system cost is higher, often a lot higher now than the cost of panels. On the other hand the marginal cost of electricity for a power company is lower than residential panels. So I would use that as the cost basis. Also remember gasoline has a huge infrastructure behind it.