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It might be assuming no energy price increases. Given that energy e.g. increased in many german cities from 30ct/kWh to > 60ct/kWh, it might break even much fas
by Matthias247 4y ago
It might be assuming no energy price increases. Given that energy e.g. increased in many german cities from 30ct/kWh to > 60ct/kWh, it might break even much faster.
On the other hand it might however also not include maintenance costs.
- olalonde 4y agoIn that case, you should probably account for the time value of money and the depreciation of your solar roof. 15,000$ today is worth almost 50,000$ in 20 years at 6% interest rate (long term stock market returns are about 7%). Let's say the solar roof depreciates by half in 20 years and produces 14,000$ worth of electricity. You end up with 14,000$+7,500$=21,500$. Energy cost would have to increase a lot to make the solar roof a wise investment. Also, a quick Google seems to indicate that the inflation adjusted cost of residential energy tends to go down over time (e.g. nominal price goes up, but not as fast as inflation).
- peter422 4y agoStock market is not guaranteed to gain 7% over the next 20 years, but you can effectively guarantee your electricity usage is probably going to stay the same or go up and can somewhat guarantee the performance of the panels (given the warranties). It also is a useful form of diversification. If you only had $15k, it might not be the best overall investment, but if you have more money than that lying around it probably isn't a bad place to invest some of your money assuming you plan on using lots of electricity over the next 20 years. At some point having all your money in the stock market isn't the best money allocation either.