- Now at this point, many people ask the question, “yes, but how does solar generated electricity get used during the evening?” The answer to that is – “In most cases, it does not get used at night, but gets fed into the grid during the day and the local utility company credits that production at the retail rate. So evening use of electricity becomes free. This mechanism is called NetMetering.”
- Many utilities extend friendly Net Metering policies until about 10% of homes have gone solar. After 10% penetration, the grid likes to have storage on the edge of the grid to facilitate a balanced grid. That is why about half the homes going solar in California are also integrating batteries into their solutions in 2020.
Note: In 2020, about 35% of homes in Hawaii have solar and about 15% of homes in California have solar, yet less than 2% of homes have solar in the remaining 48 US States.
- Adding a battery to a solar system usually doubles the cost and the payback period.
- If a house goes solar with the above assumptions, that house would pay about 5 yrs of electricity upfront for a solar system that would produce enough energy every year to offset all consumption for the next 30 plus years. So 25 years of free electricity. Furthermore, such a solar system would offset approximately 330,000 pounds of coal burning over the same 30 year period.
Would you like to save 25 years of electricity (~$80,000 inflation adjusted value) and offset 330,000 pounds of coal burning?
Let us help you go solar.