Feasibility Notes on PV

The take-home message that few people recognize about PV is that it is now dirt cheap: you can get panels for 30 cents per watt - see front deals page of http://sunelec.com!

This means that a 3kW array - costs only $900. Only 10 years ago, the price would have been about 18 times higher:

Given this reality, how come hardly anyone has solar panels on their roof? The first reason is lack of awareness. Second is retrofit costs, which can drive the price up significantly. But if one is building a new house, not considering PV today is simply foolish. The energy payback time is about 2 years, so if you buy 25 year rated panels, you get free electricity fro 23 of those 25 years. This means that literally, one's electric bills should vanish.