Re: [OT]Solar Power

[Bill Taylor <bill-taylor@xxxxxxxx>]

Could you let us know where these panels that pay for themselves in
ten years can be found?

The going rate seems to be of the order of £200 for a 60W peak output
panel. I reckon that with an average day length of 10 hours, and an
average output of 30W they will generate about 65kWhrs a year. You
will lose about 20% of that in conversion so that drops it to 52 units
a year or £5 worth of electricity. That makes the raw payback period
of the panel about 40 years. But of course the rest of the
installation is likely to cost pretty much the same amount as the
panels, which increases the payback period to 80 years, well beyond
any reasonable lifetime of the components.

It will take an enormous increase in electricity prices and a large
reduction in panel costs to make PV generation a financially sensible
option.

Even in The US where some states have greater amounts of sunlight and
much better grants than we do it is only financially worthwhile if you
have to pay lots of money to get a grid connection.

I'm not knocking the idea, I quite fancy getting some panels myself,
but I would be doing it for the same reasons as I dabble with HA,
because it's an interesting pastime, not because it has any value of
itself.

(And I would love to be proved wrong about the cost!)

Bill

Martin wrote:

MH> Depends on your viewpoint, as the girl said to the sailor. If they
last
MH> 20 years and you've paid them off in 10, then you have 10 years free
use
MH> and your money back at the end

MH> Martin

MH> Chris Hunter wrote:
>>  > Looked at another way, you are investing £10k at an
interest rate of 10%
>> pa ...
>>
>> don't forget that with solar panels the capital will be
written-off -
>> ie: the effective interest-rate will like as not actually be
negative !
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>>