Solar Power Cost Blog

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http://www.123CheapSolarCom.com

Solar panels electricity cost less than you might think.
Electricity generation through solar cells wind turbines
and fuel cells is not only becoming more popular,
but much less expensive” Portable and small solar
cells can even be mounted on cell phones and
cars.

The most cost-effective solar cells are the ones
you build at home yourself. These cells can be
constructed for less than $200 per panel and
provide inexpensive solar panel electricity
generation.

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Technorati Tags: cost, electricity generation, electronics, portable, solar panels, solar panels electricity, voltage, wind power, wind turbines

http://homepower.com/home/

http://www.nrel.gov/solar/

solar is one of those things that is mainly for rich people. Your average person doesn’t have the capital to invest in 25,000 dollars worth of PV. That won’t always be the case.. they are making breakthroughs in solar practically every day, but for now.. it’s just not practical – for the typical person.. And I know you are going to say Tax right offs and subsidies.. but States are broke.

I don’t think so.. I think you still lease the lines that attach to your home from the utility pole. But you could always detach from that.. you just need enough PV, or wind, whatever to meet your own personal demand. Maybe a backup generator for cloudy days or eclipses?

Yes. The system is designed so that what you sell all year equalizes your needs and when you are out — at work, school, shopping — you supply your neighbors and are credited. At nioght you use the grid, and if the system is designed correctly, you equal out by years end. Payback to own your own power is typically 8-12 years on a system warranted for 25 years. It’s really a now brainer that people owning their own power source is a good investment. People who don’t believe seem like Oil sheep and misinformed

I do not agree at all. I live in Phoenix which is one of the few ideal locations for solar. A system for my house will break even in 11-13 years, but only getting almost half of it paid for by the taxpayers and Utility rebates. If the system had to stand on its own, it would never break even. Also the break even does not include any maintenance and replacement costs which is inevitable. In most areas, these systems will not do as well as here.

Tax dollars are not FREE. It is hard-earned money by millions of hard-working individuals. Most of us do not have $20,000 laying around to install a system. Only the rich do. Using my tax dollars to help the better off to justify or sell a money losing Solar system is WRONG!

Let the market work! Don’t use my money to prop up these systems. Build Nuclear Power, or help people that really need it if you want to spend my money. Again – Tax Subsidies are not FREE.

DIY save money, have fun, www.cleanenerguy.com solar

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Im charging a Rechargeable AA battery using a 2.4W Solar panel. The batteries are connected through a USB port. They are exposed to 6 hours of sunlight, They seem charged after, However the batteries do not retain the charge and get very quickly drained. my question is why is the battery getting drained after showing 87% of charge.

The battery is clearly not getting fully charged. You need a charge controller with your solar panel to properly control the flow of electricity. And the solar panel must put out more voltage than the fully charged battery does or else it will never fully charge the battery even with the charge controller. So you need to know more than just how many watts the solar panel can make, you need to know it’s voltage. And keep in mind that the 2.4W rating is no doubt the maximum you can get under ideal conditions. If you don’t keep moving the panel to point exactly at the Sun all the time you will loose some power. This requires turning the panel slowly all day to follow the Sun. Just setting out in the sun and walking away for 6 hours will result is less than 2.4W most of the time.

21 Sates Have rebates. If you lease a system here in CA, the lease is for 2o years, you pay nothing, and it locks in your energy costs at the rate of your bill today.

Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency

http://dsireusa.org/

Other states aren’t as fortunate as California in terms of amount of sun vs. electricity prices.

California’s rebate is small, as it has been ramping down for years. The Federal tax credit dominates, the same credit that is available in any state.

Our system, which is 3 kW, supplies substantially all our electrical needs for the year. But we’re a conservative user of electricity – no A/C, no electric heat, no pool pump, no big screen TV. Like 95% of solar systems installed today, it uses no batteries. At today’s prices, the system would cost $9000, including tax and shipping, but not labor, and not including tax credit. We paid no labor, as it was a self-install, but for another person, possibly the tax credit would balance out the labor. Assuming the system lasts 20 years, the cost per kWh is 7.5 cents. This is how a lease can make money, since the cost of electricity is currently more like 15 cents per kWh here. In a place with less sun or cheaper electricity, this arrangement would not work.

As prices of panels drop, I expect systems to become financially advantageous in more and more areas, even without added incentives. But not yet.

To the assertion that solar panels never return the energy put into their manufacture, that was once true, perhaps in 1980. Here is a document from the National Renewable Energy Labs with a more recent analysis http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf . A modern solar electric panel is a good location will return the energy of its manufacture in about 2 years.

The wholesale solar panel industry has been forced to drop its prices due to the cost of silicon after the recession. Clean Skies News looks at what homeowners will gain by installing solar panels now, and interviews David Llorens, who is co-founder of solar company One Block off the Grid.

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Technorati Tags: Clean Skies News, David Llorens, electric bills, energy efficiency, Lee Patrick Sullivan, One Block Off the Grid, Power Generation, silicon, SOLAR, solar farm, solar panels