There’s the statistics, then there’s the actual experience in adopting the technology for one’s own use. Back in 2005 the Wife and I had solar PV put on the roof of our home, our combined buying power was well under the $129,000 or the $110,000 statistics quoted in the article. During that 2010 to say 2020 period interest rates were low, State, Utility and Federal (ITC) subsidies were in place and the price of installing solar PV on one’s roof changed from the 2005 rate of right at $8.30/watt installed to today at something like $3/watt installed without subsidies and around $2/watt installed with subsidies. That puts the cost availability to households that make a combined $60,000 a year, without subsidies and around $42,000 with subsidies. It seems for 2023 one can carry the ITC over to a second year to offset the Federal taxes for two consecutive years, allowing more capture of the ITC for low income families.

Things the wife and I learned from the install of the solar PV array on our home’s roof in 2005. Yes it was quite expensive, the “simple ROI” calculated out to 22 years for payback in electricity savings. The (Things) the energy industry won’t tell you is, back in the day (2005) the cost of electricity was right at $0.11/kWh, today it is right at $0.17/kWh as bundled retail rate costs are added to the wholesale value of electricity. When one hit $0.12/kWh, often the ROI was right around 15 years payoff. Right now in California with block tiered electricity rates, TOU rate spiking, folks are finding out if they put in a large solar PV array, smart ESS and buy into a new or used BEV, they can save something like $6,000 to $10,000 a year in combined energy costs and pay for their solar PV + ESS in 5 years or less.

There are still some actually claiming, the solar PV won’t pay off, because, you’ll have to replace panels every 10 years. (IF) the panels aren’t damaged by natural events, there are solar PV panels like Maxeon on the market now that have a linear 40 year power production warranty. Solar PV panels degrade in the sun and become worthless. Another lie told by corporate energy and swallowed by the retail electricity public hook, line and sinker. The new crop of manufactured solar PV cells and panels have a LID of 2% the first year of use and from a high of 0.7% to a low of 0.25% a year thereafter. SO, today a solar PV panel of 400 watts operating undamaged for those 40 years would lose 2% efficiency the first year and 0.25% every year after for 39 years and have a power output of right around 353 watts after 40 years of use. The price of solar PV panels (today) one could add around 25% more panels and have a robust 40 year solar PV array. Roughly $4K to $6K more in panels to make a more reliable energy generation array for the next 40 years. The old grid tied solar PV array we had on the house since 2005, did indeed degrade over years of use. The find here is every time someone replaces an old appliance in their home with a new Energy Star appliance, you need less energy to run your household and still have enough generation each day to offset your average daily energy needs. THIS is a marathon, not a sprint. I haven’t experienced electricity rates going down in the last 30 to 40 years and it seems like the overall trend is electricity per kWh is NOT going down anytime soon, unless you pay it forward and get your own electricity generation system.