This past year my wife and I finally got the solar array we had planned in. The questions I usually get asked are how much it cost, how much does it produce and what level of subsidy is there for it.
First, here's what it looks like:
The idea was to have something that produced enough power to offset our family's daily energy use. So I'll walk through how this worked out:
- The house consumes the Solar Array first. Anything left over goes back to DTE in which they pay $0.12 per KW/h.
- The array is rated at 20.1KW which means it produces between 80 and 100 KWhs per day if it's sunny-ish.
- The federal government currently has a tax rebate of 30% of the cost. They won't give you a check, they just reduce your income taxes but it's a very generous deal and the only way this is remotely feasible (I'll explain in a sec).
- DTE also pays about $2,000 per KW as part of their subsidy for it. So they actually do write a check to help offset the cost.
- The total cost was $180,000 for the panels / installation and $20,000 for prepping the land.
- The total cost would be about $100k to me and $100k in various rebates/subsidies for a total cost to me of about $5 per KW.
- We used the Sun Power SPR-240-WHT system which has around a 19.3% efficiency.
- You can monitor the system in real time (here's a picture of my panel read out via Enphase: http://screencast.com/t/lxzafiudG).
- It'll take about 25 years to pay back. So I don't recommend this kind of thing if you're trying to look at it from an investment perspective. I had my own, kooky reasons (lowering our energy foot print, dislike of high monthly bills, etc.)
You can see the progression of solar activity through the day here: http://screencast.com/t/t7aIGhvnDXyK
In terms of which parts of the country get the most sun here’s a map:
Take this map and then look at the average temperature (lower temps = higher efficiency) to get an idea of whether your area is suitable.
If anyone has any questions on the implementation of solar power, feel free to comment. It was a very educational experience.