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Break Even Achieved!

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After taking into account all federal and state credits as well as the cost of electricity that I didn't have to pay for, I have officially reached the break-even point of my solar system after 60 MWh of production. Here is the math / details for people considering going solar:

Cost of system (in 2019) - $37,090, consisting of 40 330 watt Panasonic panels with optimizers (13.2KW nameplate capacity), a single 11.4 KW Solaredge inverter, and critter guards
Federal tax credit - 11,127
Cost of electricity (at 0.22 cents inc delivery charges) - $13,200
SREC sales - approx $13,200 (slightly more I lost track, it's at least that much)
Break even time period - 3 years and 4 months
Total home electricity usage in that time - 61 MWh for 98% solar power (will get to 100% soon now that my line problems are fixed). This includes charging 2 Teslas almost daily. I do not have electric heat except for some space heaters when my true-up date approaches nor do I have an electric hot water heater.
Total power imported - 40 MWh
Total power exported - 39 MWh
Self-powered percentage - 33% (I only use my Powerwalls as backup)
Best production day - 96 KWh (May 31st) - this is equivalent to 8.4 hours of maximum production at 11.4 KW -clipping for over 5 hours
Winter solstice production (100% sunny) - 40KWh - Maximum power 8.7 KW
Average production - 49KWh <--- surprisingly high considering cloudy and rainy days
Best Production Month - tie between June and July at 2.12 MWh
Months where the system has exceeded 2MWh production - May, June, July, August
Lowest production month - no snow January 685KWh, snow covered February 384KWh

Problems encountered:

1) Low line voltage resulting in a loss of about 1-2 MWh because of the system tripping off on hot days. Fix required a transformer to be installed on my utility pole, which took 3 years for PSE&G to complete. It added a month to the break even period and kept me from being 100% self-generating so far.
2) Solaredge Inverter failed 2 years in. Luckily I did not go with Tesla for my install so my installer installed a replacement in less than 5 days.

Lessons learned:

1) Don't bother cleaning the panels, it doesn't make any appreciable difference but
2) If you need solar after a Winter storm because the power went out... you're gonna have to get on the roof in treacherous conditions (NOT recommended) to clean off at least some panels.
3) Get as many panels as you can, you can never have too much power if you have electric cars or electric heat!
4) For my location the best true up date with the utility appears to be in the beginning of March as I've used all my excess by then.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the system performance. I did not include the cost of my 2 Powerwalls in the calculations as I got those separately and in lieu of a generator which would have cost me just as much to install as the Powerwalls (after the tax credit). And yes I realize I would have made money investing the $37K instead, but I could have also lost my shirt doing that.
 
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i'm just north of you in Orange County NY. I had 20 x 330 panels and 2 PW's installed in late 2018. Your system is exactly 2x the size of mine but your productions #'s are more like 2.25x that of mine. I'm curious as to what direction(s) your panels are facing? Mine are on a single southern facing roof section. I am at 1250' elevation and we get hammered with snow. I have had zero production for 1 week plus with heavy ice and snow on several occasions.
 
After taking into account all federal and state credits as well as the cost of electricity that I didn't have to pay for, I have officially reached the break-even point of my solar system after 60 MWh of production. Here is the math / details for people considering going solar:

Cost of system (in 2019) - $37,090, consisting of 40 330 watt Panasonic panels with optimizers (13.2KW nameplate capacity), a single 11.4 KW Solaredge inverter, and critter guards
Federal tax credit - 11,127
Cost of electricity (at 0.22 cents inc delivery charges) - $13,200
SREC sales - approx $13,200 (slightly more I lost track, it's at least that much)
Break even time period - 3 years and 4 months
Total home electricity usage in that time - 61 MWh for 98% solar power (will get to 100% soon now that my line problems are fixed). This includes charging 2 Teslas almost daily. I do not have electric heat except for some space heaters when my true-up date approaches nor do I have an electric hot water heater.
Total power imported - 40 MWh
Total power exported - 39 MWh
Self-powered percentage - 33% (I only use my Powerwalls as backup)
Best production day - 96 KWh (May 31st) - this is equivalent to 8.4 hours of maximum production at 11.4 KW -clipping for over 5 hours
Winter solstice production (100% sunny) - 40KWh - Maximum power 8.7 KW
Average production - 49KWh <--- surprisingly high considering cloudy and rainy days
Best Production Month - tie between June and July at 2.12 MWh
Months where the system has exceeded 2MWh production - May, June, July, August
Lowest production month - no snow January 685KWh, snow covered February 384KWh

Problems encountered:

1) Low line voltage resulting in a loss of about 1-2 MWh because of the system tripping off on hot days. Fix required a transformer to be installed on my utility pole, which took 3 years for PSE&G to complete. It added a month to the break even period and kept me from being 100% self-generating so far.
2) Solaredge Inverter failed 2 years in. Luckily I did not go with Tesla for my install so my installer installed a replacement in less than 5 days.

Lessons learned:

1) Don't bother cleaning the panels, it doesn't make any appreciable difference but
2) If you need solar after a Winter storm because the power went out... you're gonna have to get on the roof in treacherous conditions (NOT recommended) to clean off at least some panels.
3) Get as many panels as you can, you can never have too much power if you have electric cars or electric heat!
4) For my location the best true up date with the utility appears to be in the beginning of March as I've used all my excess by then.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the system performance. I did not include the cost of my 2 Powerwalls in the calculations as I got those separately and in lieu of a generator which would have cost me just as much to install as the Powerwalls (after the tax credit). And yes I realize I would have made money investing the $37K instead, but I could have also lost my shirt doing that.
Congratulations. Installed solar March of 2014 and broke even December of 2017. Profit to me now $12,703 based on utility electric rates from 2014 which were $0.125kWh for Tier 1. Tier 1 rate is now $0.29kWh so my savings are much greater. I also replaced two ICE vehicles with two Teslas in 2018. In 2013, the last year I was buying gas at $3.49 a gallon, $7K annual gas bill for ICE. Now $0 so savings back to me is even greater. Nothing better than investing in yourself.
 
i'm just north of you in Orange County NY. I had 20 x 330 panels and 2 PW's installed in late 2018. Your system is exactly 2x the size of mine but your productions #'s are more like 2.25x that of mine. I'm curious as to what direction(s) your panels are facing? Mine are on a single southern facing roof section. I am at 1250' elevation and we get hammered with snow. I have had zero production for 1 week plus with heavy ice and snow on several occasions.
All South facing unobstructed panels, one string is on a slightly more inclined roof but really very little difference. I have the added advantage of having a South facing rear yard that has no trees, so even in Winter the panels are minimally shaded.
 
3) Get as many panels as you can, you can never have too much power if you have electric cars or electric heat!
In CA/PG&E land, PG&E won't let you over-provision (ie, they reject the proposal if you're significantly over) your solar. I woulda gone for 50% larger if I could - 1 PW, 4kW panels - overproducing probably 10% which will vanish once it gets hotter & we run AC more in the summer. I didn't have an EV prior to install, so I can't really cover charging the new EV on solar alone. But essentially off grid for 10 months of the year, and just barely under producing for much of the other 2 months, and no power failures due to powerwall is wonderful.
My breakeven date is ~13 years away - installed last year.
 
In CA/PG&E land, PG&E won't let you over-provision (ie, they reject the proposal if you're significantly over) your solar. I woulda gone for 50% larger if I could - 1 PW, 4kW panels - overproducing probably 10% which will vanish once it gets hotter & we run AC more in the summer. I didn't have an EV prior to install, so I can't really cover charging the new EV on solar alone. But essentially off grid for 10 months of the year, and just barely under producing for much of the other 2 months, and no power failures due to powerwall is wonderful.
My breakeven date is ~13 years away - installed last year.
Just depends on the data you can provide. I have TONS TONS more than I use now, but not at the time I gave real data to get approved 30KW of panels. :)
 
I installed in July 2018. Added 1/3 more panels in 2019 for total of 11.8 kW. My breakeven is in 5 more months.

Of course all of these break evens in less than 5 years kind of point to the fact that the rules are skewed somewhat towards solar owners. Somewhat, but not a lot. I think I would go for solar up to a breakeven of 7 or 8 years. After that, it would not be worth it to me given the risk and cost of money. If NEM3 passes close to as is, I don't see a break even less than 15 years if that
 
Congrats @DrSmile! Must be a great feeling to cross that line.

I did not include the cost of my 2 Powerwalls in the calculations as I got those separately and in lieu of a generator which would have cost me just as much to install as the Powerwalls (after the tax credit).

Interestingly enough, adding three Powerwalls to our install in 2020 reduced our time to break even from 8 years to 5.5! Our 12kw solar system is east-west so not as efficient generating as it could be. The Powerwall VPP payouts we can get really help that bottom line recover. I wanted the Powerwalls, but that sealed the deal for me.
 
After taking into account all federal and state credits as well as the cost of electricity that I didn't have to pay for, I have officially reached the break-even point of my solar system after 60 MWh of production. Here is the math / details for people considering going solar:

Cost of system (in 2019) - $37,090, consisting of 40 330 watt Panasonic panels with optimizers (13.2KW nameplate capacity), a single 11.4 KW Solaredge inverter, and critter guards
Federal tax credit - 11,127
Cost of electricity (at 0.22 cents inc delivery charges) - $13,200
SREC sales - approx $13,200 (slightly more I lost track, it's at least that much)
Break even time period - 3 years and 4 months
Total home electricity usage in that time - 61 MWh for 98% solar power (will get to 100% soon now that my line problems are fixed). This includes charging 2 Teslas almost daily. I do not have electric heat except for some space heaters when my true-up date approaches nor do I have an electric hot water heater.
Total power imported - 40 MWh
Total power exported - 39 MWh
Self-powered percentage - 33% (I only use my Powerwalls as backup)
Best production day - 96 KWh (May 31st) - this is equivalent to 8.4 hours of maximum production at 11.4 KW -clipping for over 5 hours
Winter solstice production (100% sunny) - 40KWh - Maximum power 8.7 KW
Average production - 49KWh <--- surprisingly high considering cloudy and rainy days
Best Production Month - tie between June and July at 2.12 MWh
Months where the system has exceeded 2MWh production - May, June, July, August
Lowest production month - no snow January 685KWh, snow covered February 384KWh

Problems encountered:

1) Low line voltage resulting in a loss of about 1-2 MWh because of the system tripping off on hot days. Fix required a transformer to be installed on my utility pole, which took 3 years for PSE&G to complete. It added a month to the break even period and kept me from being 100% self-generating so far.
2) Solaredge Inverter failed 2 years in. Luckily I did not go with Tesla for my install so my installer installed a replacement in less than 5 days.

Lessons learned:

1) Don't bother cleaning the panels, it doesn't make any appreciable difference but
2) If you need solar after a Winter storm because the power went out... you're gonna have to get on the roof in treacherous conditions (NOT recommended) to clean off at least some panels.
3) Get as many panels as you can, you can never have too much power if you have electric cars or electric heat!
4) For my location the best true up date with the utility appears to be in the beginning of March as I've used all my excess by then.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the system performance. I did not include the cost of my 2 Powerwalls in the calculations as I got those separately and in lieu of a generator which would have cost me just as much to install as the Powerwalls (after the tax credit). And yes I realize I would have made money investing the $37K instead, but I could have also lost my shirt doing that.
You are lucky you don't get your electricity from SDG&E who have worked overtime to reduce the return on a Solar Panel Installation.