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I'm not likely to make friends with this post, but there are largely three reasons why solar is a US success story:
  1. Consumers who want to take charge of their own renewable energy generation, and receive a substantial discount because of tax policies;
  2. Massive subsidies through Solar REC programs etc.
  3. Massive subsidies through net metering provisions.
If solar had to compete head-to-head with other energy sources -- even other renewable energy sources -- on an energy-only basis, it is economic only in specialized applications. Some people don't care if it's economic, and my hats off to them, but it's unclear why state and federal governments should be paying for a large portion of these private installations.

Just to be clear, I'm strongly in favor of a shift to renewable power. I'm just not in favor of policies that favor one particular industry (solar) over others that may be even more cost-effective.
Governments causing inefficiency? never! :)

My particular case seems especially odd to me.
I use a lot of electricity. I have a big house to cool, a large pool to filter, and an electric car. I know I'm an evil person for wanting the big house and pool, but I do, so there you go. My roof that faces South has on it a 5.4kW solar system and an equally large solar thermal system for heating my pool. Despite the reasonably large sized solar system, I still purchase a lot of electricity from PG&E, so I pay a marginal rate of $0.35/kWh. With subsidies, photovoltaics facing North can pay for themselves at an electric cost of $0.20/kWh. In the meantime, folks that have a modest house without a pool pay PG&E a marginal rate of $0.10/kWh and not even South facing panels are financially sensible.

So PG&E and various governments make it financially sound for me to install an 8kW solar system that faces North while others that have good South facing roofs would be financially worse off to install solar.

I agree that governments should financially discourage pollution (including CO2), but the way that they've done it in San Jose seems strange to me.
 
I'm not likely to make friends with this post, but there are largely three reasons why solar is a US success story:
  1. Consumers who want to take charge of their own renewable energy generation, and receive a substantial discount because of tax policies;
I would not underestimate this one. Even without the tax incentives, a LOT of people would do this. Why? Institutions are distrusted. Enron was allowed to cause the California blackouts. The East Coast grid went down a few years ago. My local grid has short blackouts often enough that I have all my electronics on battery backup. And then there's that fellow in rural Alaska who figured out that grid energy was simply far more expensive than installing his own system -- even with massive numbers of batteries.

The decentralization -- a.k.a. robustness -- incentive is massive. It has inherent value. Just as there is inherent value in having domestic manufacturing for key devices, even if it's more expensive than buying from abroad -- it's *robust*, whereas buying from abroad is *fragile*. And people understand this. And frankly, the government should support this, given that the government has been incapable of or unwilling to make the major institutions trustworthy.
 
orb_1.jpg


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/orb-shaped-solar-power-device-works-cloudiest-days-180949307/#ixzz2qFlVsYBL
 
All these innovations are great... I just hope they don't give people the false impression that solar is somehow not ready for "prime time". Without a doubt it's ready and has been for a few years. I'm helping three friends install solar; the equipment should be arriving this week. ~30kW of panels, inverters and mounting everything I need to build two 10kW systems and a 7kW system for.... GRAND TOTAL.... ~$40k. One of the 10kW systems will be by far the least costly per watt I've ever built ~$1.3/w... I was paying more than that just for the panels 3 years ago!! Even in Seattle, WA this system will produce power at a 20 year cost of ~$0.085/kWh. Here in NM it's going to be closer to $0.04/kWh. Since these panels will probably last >40 years the long-term cost is likely closer to ~$0.03/kWh. This is all BEFORE the 30% FTC.

Solar is here, it's abundant, it's cost-effective and it's scalable. Yes, it's going to get cheaper and more efficient but the benefits of waiting are far outweighed by the cost of delaying...
 
All these innovations are great... I just hope they don't give people the false impression that solar is somehow not ready for "prime time". Without a doubt it's ready and has been for a few years. I'm helping three friends install solar; the equipment should be arriving this week. ~30kW of panels, inverters and mounting everything I need to build two 10kW systems and a 7kW system for.... GRAND TOTAL.... ~$40k. One of the 10kW systems will be by far the least costly per watt I've ever built ~$1.3/w... I was paying more than that just for the panels 3 years ago!! Even in Seattle, WA this system will produce power at a 20 year cost of ~$0.085/kWh. Here in NM it's going to be closer to $0.04/kWh. Since these panels will probably last >40 years the long-term cost is likely closer to ~$0.03/kWh. This is all BEFORE the 30% FTC.

Solar is here, it's abundant, it's cost-effective and it's scalable. Yes, it's going to get cheaper and more efficient but the benefits of waiting are far outweighed by the cost of delaying...

Do you happen to have a blog or something that you'll use to document the installs? I think a lot of people (me included) would love to see the details on costs, installation, process, etc.

Same here. Would love direction.
 
Yeah... I'll try to get something going but I'm not very good with computers. In terms of installing solar PV the thing you have to keep in mind is that with the drop in equipment cost over 50% of the cost is now labour and red-tape. You can save ~$2-3/w by either doing it yourself, racking it yourself and hiring an electrician or subcontracting everything. In WA I had my house re-roofed and for $700 the roofers installed the mounts. I racked the panels then hired an electrician for $1000 to do the final wiring. An 8kW system that I was quoted ~$50k by a solar installer ended up costing ~$24k. Solar PV isn't rocket science.... this design tool from SMA is very helpful: http://www.sunnydesignweb.com/sdweb/SunnyDesign/Home I love the work that solar installers do but the mark-ups they demand are insane... they need to realize this isn't a boutique business anymore. It's more labour intensive to re-roof a house, so why are solar installers charging 3x as much? I met with an installer in Albuquerque who paid $0.30/w in commission! Imagine making $3k just for finding someone who wanted to install a 10kW system!

I've done grid-tied systems in WA, NM and TX if anyone needs help feel free to message me. Saving the world one watt at a time :smile:

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not an electrician or contractor or roofer... Just an enthusiast that knows the difference between AC-DC / series-parallel circuits.
 
Check out this article:
Read This Retiring Utility Commissioners Candid Words About Energy Policy : Greentech Media

I thought this was the most interesting part of it:
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, with the passage of AB327, the thorny issue of net energy metering and rate design has been given over to the CPUC. But recognize that this is a poisoned chalice: the commission will come under intense pressure to use this authority to protect the interest of the utilities over those of consumers and potential self-generators, all in the name of addressing exaggerated concerns about grid stability, cost and fairness.
 
Solar power in Wisconsin

Here are some shots of my just finished 72.4kW solar installation. A total of 284 255W panels feed six Fronius IG Plus inverters. H&H from Madison, WI did the install. It powers two outdoor charging stations, (an HPWC and a 75A clipper Creek J1772) as well as the bodyshop. I posted this elsewhere here but this seems like a more logical thread. We are are an authorized Tesla collision repair facility and one of the first four shops in the US to be factory trained at Fremont. It's our goal to be carbon neutral and sustainable by 2016. We intend to accomplish this by reducing/eliminating waste, recycling, and using solar and renewable energy sources. Even partially covered by snow we are seeing between 10 and 40kW peak production at times. It's very exciting to see the heightened interest in solar coming from our customers.

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The German renewable energy policy continues it's about face. A $.06 tax on a kWh of self-consumed solar? How does that make any sense?

German solar group blasts government plans to tax self-consumption

And installs continue to tank just when panel costs have bottomed out.

German 2013 new solar additions drop 55% to 3.3 GW

It's getting more and more difficult to believe that Hermann Scheer's death was anything other than an assassination. The architect of German renewable energy policy suddenly and mysteriously dies of an "unspecified short and severe illness" two weeks after implicating Germany's privately owned nuclear power corporations in a massive EUR60B breach of contract. The guy was 66 and in good health then all of the sudden he's dead and the entire solar program is cut in half exactly when it should be accelerating. There aren't many deaths over the last few decades that have put more cash in more scumbag's pockets.