6 ms·

10 years to recoup an investment in real estate seems OK.

• zemvpferreira 6y ago
  I'd say buying panels is very far from an investment in real estate. If you buy an apartment to rent, say, you can count on having return in the form of rents every month and on the property appreciating over time. So you can justify a very long payback period because at the end of 20 years the asset will be worth more than at year zero. Solar panels generate cashflow in the form of electricity but they depreciate over time. So the payback period (in the form of cashflow) has to be much shorter than for an apartment or home.
  • jacobolus 6y ago
    A house with 10-year-old solar panels on top is surely going to be worth more than a house with no solar panels on top, even if the cost of new panels comes down significantly over that time. As you point out, the panels continue generating returns for a long time after that. Moreover, people should not buy a house with the expectation that it will inevitably be worth more in 20 years than it is today. Appreciation of land values is far from a universal law of nature.
  • ClumsyPilot 6y ago
    There is no reason to believe that real estate should increase in value for the next 50 years for any reason except financial manipulation. We have birthrates of 1.6 in most of Europe, and the global population is about to peak in every contry except in African countries*
    • stjohnswarts 6y ago
      *African countries.