To pull the trigger or wait, new solar PV

Leonard

Heard 10 years is about it for lead acid bats. Seems even the bats electric cars are using have a wearout period < 10 years.

So bat life is a financial problem, think that's why most solar backfeed excess to utility.

People who are off gird with fueled generator /bat inverter would love to have a grid connection, to save $$$. But out in the boonies utilitis might charge many tens of thousands $$$ to drag in a line

Some large building corporations out west have massive solar PV arrays to make all their own power, but they are still tied to utility for shadows, cloudy days. ( makes utility power plant running rough, more $$$ for plants that aren't used often)

kenjohnson

Lots been said by others already - if you want to do it, go ahead and do it. The Fed tax credit is 30% of system cost in 2019, declines a little in 2020. You are not limited to $3k a year. It will work, ground mounts are fine, don't wait.

I put in almost the same system in my Central NY (renovating) home 4 years ago - a 20 panel 5.3 kW system with a fixed-axis ground mount 250 feet away from my house. I got about $9k in NY state incentives, and the 30% Fed tax credit. After all incentives, my cost was ~$16k (~$35k before incentives) and it generates 6 MWh a year of electricity for me - about $720/year at 12 cents/kWh (my average rate in Central NY) for a 22 year payback.

Would I do it again at that price and payback? Yep - it's what I believe is right to do and I don't regret spending my money that way. Do I look back and worry that I could have gotten it a little cheaper today? Nope!

I'll likely add another 5kW with a dual-axis tracker late this year or next to complete the system, now that I have a geothermal heat pump and an electric vehicle.

Only thing I would do differently is get an inverter that can give me some plug-in back-up power while the sun shines during a power outage. SMA makes an inverter like this.

WillyP

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Make sure you are getting quality panels. I wouldn't buy anything but LG Neon 2. They will cost a little more, but in the long run you will be glad you spent the money.

GW

I finally pulled the trigger for my shop. System should be on in a week or so. My house is on hold 

Kinda funny- they wanted to install a bunch of gear on the front of my building. When I first had the consult several months ago I said clean as possible in the front (keep gear in basement where the other panels are) I think their electrician was incapable or lazy to drill the foundation (it was a little technical), not sure. So we drilled two holes and we just have a simple switch in front instead of a mountain of gear. No “trough” for me thank you 

GW

So I guess things work- did I get a super sized system? It’s only January (little sun) and I’m kinda stumped as to how much energy it’s producing. Dropped a big coin on this, maybe too much 😀

Solid_Fuel_Man

Do you feel good about it like @hot_rod said? 

GW

I feel good but wondering if I was over sold and over installed 

Solid_Fuel_Man

PV is an interesting thing. It really depends on what your usage is and how much of that you want to cover or eliminate altogether. 

As far as battery storage, it is really for off grid systems. Or if you have frequent power outages you can size the batteries to cover that load. But that isnt cheap and batteries generally have a 10 year lifetime. Or are prohibitively expensive for a grid tiesystem. 

Sizing a system can be a difficult thing depending on what your utility does with the excess your system can produce during the day. 

GW

Yes I'm on net metering so that's good. The screen shot I pasted is from yesterday, a normal work day for our office. I'll just ask the solar people; was just hoping for a bullet opinion with the people that know solar. I'm as smart as the normal lay person with this stuff.

hot_rod

I see Enphase has a battery system now, also. Is this a hybrid grid tie with some storage for grid outages? That would be the best of both worlds.
Adding a thermal component would be better yet, charge the thermal load or storage with resistance heaters before sending back to the grid at low or no KWh payack.

GW

No storage, simple grid connection, net metering

everything seems great, just not sure why I’m making so much energy, LOL

neilc

you're not watching a big enough tv