Why going solar makes lots of sense – Take advantage of all the California Incentives and also Federal Tax Credit (30% of Net Cost at Installation)

On average, a typical house consumes electricity at the rate of 1 kW per hour (kWh). Given that there are about 720 hours in each month (30 x 24 = 720) and the average price of a kWh of electricity is also $0.10, hence (again on average) a house in the USA has an electricity monthly bill around $72 for 720 kWh of electricity. If your bill is $144, you must be using 2 kW per hour on average. Note also that we assume price of a kWh of electricity at $0.10, however, the cost of electricity varies widely across the USA, from as low as $0.07/kWh in West Virginia to as much as $0.24/kWh in Hawaii. So it may not be that you are using 2 kW per hour, but your electricity cost is higher.

How can Solar Panels (also known as PV system) Help?

Since sun is only available during daylight (and the amount available per day is dependent on the extent of cloud cover and your location), the averages SUN TIME across the USA vary from around 3 hours per day in places like Seattle, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, to 5 or 6 hours per day in states like Colorado and California, to a high of 7 hours per day in Arizona. What that means is that the size of the panel array required can vary depending on where you live. You’ll need more panels if you live in a location that gets less sunshine per day, and fewer if you live in a location that gets more. Let’s go conservatively with 4 since we are discussing all California (San Francisco can be cloudy). That means to get 24 hours of full electricity production you need 6 of those Solar Panels (6×4=24 hours).

A typical solar panel can generate 10 watts/sq. ft. This means that you need about 100 sq. ft. of solar panels to generate 1kW per hour. If the sun shone 24 hours a day, you could put up 100 sq. ft. of panels and have enough energy to power the average home. But, as we said above you need 6 of those panel or 600 sq.ft. (6kW) in California. If you were in Seattle (3 hours of sun light only), then you need 8 (8×3=24 hours) of those panels or 800 sq.ft (8kW).  It used to be (way in the past) that solar cost was 3 Dollars per watt (before incentives, rebates and tax credits). So an 8kW system would have cost you $24000.  But don’t panic. Except for mounting and installations, batteries,…things have changed dramatically.

Standard Solar System Components – Cost Analysis

As you see in image below it takes more than a solar panel to get a PV system up and running. In fact, there are generally five major components in every PV system:

1. Solar panels – captures sun’s energy and converts it to electricity
2. Controller – protects batteries by regulating the flow of electricity
3. Batteries – store electricity for later use
4. Inverter – converts energy stored in a battery to voltage needed to run standard electrical equipment
5. Installation and Solar Panel Mounting System

The mounting system can sometimes cost more than the panels themselves. 

California Going Solar Incentives – Up to $3000 in addition to Federal Tax Credit of 30%:

Including the incentives, typical California installed cost of solar panels including all components is between $1.66 – $2.5 per watt: A 6 kW system would cost around $10,000 – $15,000 after all the incentives. Again, please note that the price of panels have reduced but mounting, batteries and other parts are still costly.  Depending on your roof, shape, and angel the cost of mounting varies.

Net Energy Metering in California – How you can make money

Net energy metering, or “NEM”, is a special billing arrangement that provides credit to customers with solar PV systems for the full retail value of the electricity their system generates. Under NEM, the customer’s electric meter keeps track of how much electricity is consumed by the customer, and how much excess electricity is generated by the system and sent back into the electric utility grid. Over a 12-month period, the customer has to pay only for the net amount of electricity used from the utility over-and-above the amount of electricity generated by their solar system (in addition to monthly customer transmission, distribution, and meter service charges they incur).

How Net Energy Metering Works

At any time of the day, a customer’s solar system may produce more or less electricity than they need for their home or business. When the system’s production exceeds the customer demand, the excess energy generation automatically goes through the electric meter into the utility grid, running the meter backwards to credit the customer account. At other times of the day, the customer’s electric demand may be higher than the renewable energy system is producing, and the customer relies on additional power needs from the utility. Switching between solar system’s power and the utility grid power is instantaneous-customers never notice any interruption in the flow of power.

Benefits of Net Energy Metering

NEM is your gateway to optimizing the rate of return on your solar investment.

• Allows customers to zero-out their bills.
• Credits customer accounts at full retail rates.
• Accurately captures energy generated and consumed, providing customers with annual performance data.

Payment for Net Surplus Generation

Customers that generate a net surplus of energy at the end of a twelve-month period can receive a payment for this energy under special utility tariffs. Check the tariff books for PG&E, SCE, or SDG&E for more information on net surplus generation rates.

Billing with Net Energy Metering

Under a net energy metering agreement, your utility will continue to read your meter monthly and you will receive a monthly statement indicating the net amount of electricity you consumed or exported to the utility grid during that billing period. If you are a residential or small commercial customer, you have the option of paying the utility for your net consumption monthly, or settling your account every 12 months. Contact your utility for billing options.

To read more about Net Metering please see (click):  An Introduction to Net Metering: Your Friend and Business Partner

March 3, 2017 – Californians sold 5GW of Solar back and made $500,000

On Friday March 3, 2017 California Solar Owners made $500,000 from 5GW of energy they collectively created for California. Yes, at cost of approximately $0.10 per kW, they made $500,000 collectively in 1 day.

Recently, the state briefly generated enough solar power to meet nearly half of the state’s electricity needs, according to data from the largest grid operator in the state, California ISO.

Around midday on Friday, demand reached around 29 Gigawatts (GW), while solar was providing nearly 14 GW of generation — some 9 GW from utility-scale arrays and another 5 GW or so from rooftops and parking lot canopies around the state.

 

California’s renewable energy output, midday on March 3rd. CREDIT: California ISO

Renewables are having a big moment. Solar is getting cheaper and cheaper, spurring Californians to set up photovoltaic panels on homes, businesses, and empty lots across the state.

“It’s remarkable that over a third of the solar power generated in California comes from smaller rooftop systems, meaning hundreds of thousands of homeowners are reaping the economic value generated from harnessing the sun rather than the state’s big utility companies,” said Amit Ronen, director of the GW Solar Institute.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once described the states as laboratories of democracy. They are also laboratories for energy innovation. As the federal government lurches backwards on renewable energy and climate, California and other progressive states are pushing ahead, providing a model for the rest of country.

Why are perovskite solar cells so significant?

The major appeal of perovskite solar cells is that they’re cheap — “much cheaper than something like silicon. High-quality silicon crystals must be made at high temperatures using very precise processes. Perovskite cells, on the other hand, can be made at nearly room temperature using simpler methods, so production is not so costly.

There are two key graphs which demonstrate why perovskite solar cells have attracted such prominent attention.

The first of these graphs (which uses data taken from NREL solar cell efficiency tables) demonstrates the power conversion efficiencies of the perovskite-based devices over recent years in comparison to emergent photovoltaic research technology and also traditional thin-film photovoltaics.

The graph shows a meteoric rise compared to most other technologies over a relatively short period of time. In the space of three years, perovskite solar cells have managed to achieve power conversion efficiencies comparable to Cadmium Telluride, which has been around for nearly 40 years. Although it could be argued that more resources and better infrastructure for solar cell research have been available in the last few years, the dramatic rise in perovskite solar cell efficiency is still incredibly significant and impressive.

Perovskite solar cells have increased in power conversion efficiency at a phenomenal rate compared to other types of photovoltaics. Although this figure only represents lab based “hero cells”, it heralds great promise.

The second key graph below is the open-circuit voltage compared to the band gap for a range of technologies that the perovskites compete with.

This graph demonstrates how much of a photon’s energy is lost in the conversion process from light to electricity. For standard excitonic-based, organic-based solar cells, this loss can be as high as 50% of the absorbed energy. However, for perovskite-based solar cells, the loss is far less. Perovskite-based solar cells are fast approaching the same level of photon energy utilisation as the current leading monolithic crystalline technologies, such as silicon and GaAs. Furthermore, they also have the potential for much lower processing costs.

Over the past two years, the improvements in precursor material blends for the fabrication of perovskite solar cells have led to a significant increase in power conversion efficiency. A key development has been the improvement in processing techniques used. Previously, vacuum-based techniques offered the highest efficiency devices but lately, improvements in solution-based deposition through the use of solvent quenching techniques has shifted the record-breaking devices to solution-based processing.

To enable a truly low cost-per-watt will require perovskite solar cells to have the much heralded trio of high efficiency, long lifetimes, and low manufacturing costs. This has not yet been achieved for other thin-film technologies but perovskite-based devices so far demonstrate enormous potential for achieving this.