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Jan 24 2018
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Solar Tariffs Are Here: The Sky Is NOT Falling, but the Sunshine Still Does

By How Much Do Solar Panels Save? No Comments


The wait is over. Almost one year after the original trade case petition was filed, following months of hearings, negotiations, and a final recommendation from the U.S. International Trade Commission, President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose a tariff of 30% on crystalline solar cells and modules produced outside of America, ramping down over the next four years.

Of course, 30% sounds like a lot, and for large utility-scale systems where the solar module represents a large portion of the total installed cost there is a significant impact. However for homeowners, the actual financial impact considering the purchase of a solar energy system is quite small. Let’s dig into the numbers to see why.

How will the new solar tariff affect home solar?

A solar module costs an installer roughly 70 cents per watt to purchase, accounting for the fact that the residential market has a strong preference for high quality brands such as LG, Panasonic, and SunPower. So a 30% tariff would add 21 cents to that cost, for a total of 91 cents per watt for the modules. 

That 70 cent per watt module is part of an entire system with other equipment, labor, permitting, sales and marketing costs. All in, a typical home solar system on the Solar.com platform sells for $3.30 per watt installed, before any unique case cost adders. So the post-tariff cost is now $3.51 per watt, or 6% higher.

For homeowners considering a solar system purchase, the gut reaction can often be: “Oh the cost of solar just went up, I missed my opportunity, now must NOT be a good time to add solar”. 

Spoiler alert: That decision could cost you $10,000+

Is it better to wait until the solar tariff ends?

Let’s look at a Southern California homeowner with an average $200/month electricity bill. A 7.25-kilowatt system will offset their bill, which at $3.51 per watt has a gross cost of $25,447 (tariff included) and a net cost of $17,812 with the 30% Federal Investment Tax Credit ($7,634) and before any additional local incentives are considered. In the next five years, that homeowner will spend $13,200 on electricity, that is 74% of the net cost of the system today.

You Solar Impact-1.pngExplore solar for your home with our solar savings calculator!

Don’t forget that buying a solar system with cash or a loan adds to the value of the home. A 2015 Department of Energy Lawrence Berkley Laboratory study showed the added value was at least as much as what was spent purchasing the system. What’s more, solar homes sold faster than non-solar homes. 

Or they could not go solar, and continue “renting their electricity from the utility”. Instead of paying off an asset on their home, they have delayed an investment for a solar system with a 25-year savings of $89,000!

In this way, solar reminds us of the age-old proverb about the best time to plant a tree. In this case: the best time to install a solar system was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

Jan 23 2018
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How Blockchain And Solar Can Work Together

By Solar Panel Installation Process No Comments

Many would consider 2017 to be the year of cryptocurrency. Coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and dozens of others have shot up 1,000%+ and do not seem to be slowing down.

What really happened in 2017 was the year of the blockchain. Blockchain is the technology that all of these cryptocurrencies are built on top of. Blockchain technology can be applied to almost every sector, including solar! Before we go into how they can be used together, let us go over a high-level definition of what blockchain is.

What is Blockchain Technology?

On a basic level, blockchain technology is a secure and distributed database, also called a ledger. On a practical level, blockchain technology allows the currency to be sent all across the world without needing the validation of a bank. This is simply because of the network’s distributed nature. The blockchain is also not just for coins and can include games, such as Cryptokitties, among others. To get a deeper dive on what blockchain is, feel free to read about it here or here.

Now, you may be wondering what in the world can a distributed ledger do for the solar industry? As it turns out, it can do quite a lot.

The Conventional Energy Problem

Right now, most of the world’s energy is predominantly powered by large generation plants. Unfortunately, the world relies on these plants and the grid that they are connected to, to distribute power to all of its consumers. While the model has sufficed in the past, as more and more people go solar and produce their own energy, this one-directional structure begins to fail, requiring a more flexible solution.

In the past, hotels used to be the only place where people stayed when traveling, and taxis were the only option when people wanted to get around town without their own car. Then Airbnb and Uber came in and created a distributed network that changed everything. Right now, the power plant controllers are in the same position as the hotels or taxi companies were, and the blockchain is the technology that can change the way things work.

Solar Energy Exchanges

There is a slew of companies that are looking to create exchanges for people to buy solar panels or clean energy and sell it around the world. This model uses multiple sources to produce power. In other words, instead of having one plant powering a whole neighborhood, a few houses in that neighborhood with solar roofs can share their energy with other houses in the neighborhood, AND get paid for it. This is what the blockchain can enable homeowners to do.

How is this possible?

The only reason that our energy systems have gone through power plants up until this point is that there was no other option. They are also a generally trusted source, whereas before blockchain was invented, there was no mechanism that allowed for diverse, distributed sources to provide power. With blockchain, people can send energy to other households, track that on a public ledger, which can also be validated by other nodes to make sure that there is no corruption in the network.

Transparent And Secure

The most useful aspect of blockchain is that it is 100% transparent to anyone who views the ledger, and it is immutable, meaning once a transaction or event occurs, it becomes very challenging for anyone to change the record of that event. The ability to prevent duplication is one reason why the blockchain is so lucrative.

When energy is passed from one household to another, everyone on that network will be able to see that, and how much they should be compensated for that as well. Pretty cool!

Companies On The Move

Right now, there is a rush to build out the ideal energy grid. From that, money is flying everywhere to fund companies that want to to take on this challenge. The Sun Exchange is one of the frontrunners, and they label themselves as “The Solar Panel Sharing Economy”. Another juggernaut that is working on applying this model in Australia is PowerLedger, who recently raised a massive $27 million USD Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to start production.

What Is In Store For The Future?

Blockchain technology will likely disrupt every industry at some point in time. As for solar, the application and benefits of putting solar energy on a peer-to-peer grid are more apparent than ever. The great thing is that while dozens of companies compete to win over this market, the everyday consumers will be the ones who benefit for years to come.