Comment on Why Balcony Solar Panels Haven’t Taken Off in the US
tal@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
First image is of an overcast sky with a guy with two solar panels
Third image is of a small solar panel under a roof receiving a little bit of light through an opening in an attic balcony
I think you’re comparing apples to oranges.
The main selling point for a “Balkonkraftwerk” is that it’s cheap and doesn’t require an electrician to install.
That way they pay off rather quickly and result in a lower electricity bill when you look at a span of 10-15 Years.
Solar farms in Spain on the other hand require massive investments in Infrastructure and the farms themselves. Not to say they’re a bad idea, but it’s a very different thing.
That way they pay off rather quickly and result in a lower electricity bill when you look at a span of 10-15 Years.
In the US, a lot of problems have arisen around solar installation companies providing loans using questionable, if not outright fraudulent sales tactics based around misrepresenting returns.
time.com/…/rooftop-solar-industry-collapse/
The Rooftop Solar Industry Could Be on the Verge of Collapse
A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan.
Mary Ann Jones, 83, didn’t realize this had happened to her until she received a call last year from GoodLeap, a financial technology company, saying she owed $52,564.28 for a solar panel loan that expires when she’s 106, and costs more than she originally paid for her house.
In 2022, she says, a door-to-door salesman from the company Solgen Construction showed up at her house on the outskirts of Fresno, Calif., pushing what he claimed was a government program affiliated with her utility to get her free solar panels. At one point, he had her touch his tablet device, she says, but he never said she was signing a contract with Solgen or a loan document with GoodLeap. Unbeknownst to Jones, the salesman used “yoursolarguyujosh@gmail.com” as her purported email address—that of course, was not her email address. She’s on a fixed income of $960 a month, and cannot afford the loan she says she was tricked into signing up for; she’s now fighting both Solgen and Goodleap in court.
Her case is not uncommon. Solar customers across the country say that salespeople obscure the specific terms of the financial agreements and cloud the value of the products they peddle. Related court cases are starting to pile up. “I have been practicing consumer law for over a decade, and I’ve never seen anything like what we are seeing in the solar industry right now,” says Kristin Kemnitzer, who represents Jones and says her firm gets “multiple” calls every week from potential clients with similar stories.
Companies running solar farms, on the other hand, have bean-counters in place who are in a legitimate position to run the numbers, and take on the risk themselves.
While I agree with your sentiment, I’m not sure the cell tower is a good comparison. Very few if any cell towers are installed on a residential roof. Leasing part of your plot of land or space on a commercial or multi unit building is a completely different problem than giving a company rights to part of a frame residential home. Who maintains the roof? Who insures the roof? What insurance company will write that policy? It’s already getting more complicated to insure rooftop solar because claims are climbing. Now you’ve got a roof leased to someone else with solar panels on it? Seems to me like any commercial venture would skip all that and go straight to buying or leasing land. Land with no homes. This is the US after all, we have plenty of that laying around.
[…] residential solar installation companies providing loans […]
The whole argument is that you need neither a loan or a professional installer for a Balkonkraftwerk. Your’re completely missing the point.
domi@lemmy.secnd.me 5 weeks ago
The biggest advantage of balcony-mounted solar panels, at least where I live, is that you need 0 permits. You don’t need to ask your neighbors, you don’t need to ask your power company, you don’t need a building permit, you don’t need an electrician and you don’t need a solar company to install them for you.
They don’t replace large solar farms but if you incentivize people to DIY their solar installation you get tons of additional cheap and clean energy from a source that would be wasted otherwise.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
What are you powering with it? How are you storing the energy? It just doesn’t make any economic sense to me. I’d love to see some statistics on the total cost of one of these systems and how much power people are actually getting. Maybe it makes more sense in Germany where energy prices are nearly double the US average. But I’d still love to see some real examples to back that up.
kalleboo@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
You plug it straight into the wall, it syncs to the grid and back-feeds it, up to 800W
roofuskit@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Back feeding is illegal in the US.
domi@lemmy.secnd.me 5 weeks ago
Balcony solar panels are dirt cheap, you can get them for 200-300€, including the micro inverter. You usually do not have batteries in these setups, you just use up the generated power while it is available by moving things like the dishwasher and dryer to that time.
To give some actual numbers, I pay 0.22€ per kWh right now. In the last 30 days (Apr 21 - May 20) the balcony solar panels generated 74.11kWh. The month was fairly average with an even mixture of sunny days and rainy days.
Assuming you can use up the 800W of peak power, you will have saved around 16€ in just those 30 days. I don’t have full data for the year yet since I only got mine a few months back but my current estimation is that it will have paid for itself after 2-4 years.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
How are you getting power to your appliances? Someone else suggested back feeding into an outlet which is illegal in the US.