California cuts payments to solar powered homes
(archive.vn)
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So less incentive to buy solar then? How much do they provide to the grid anyway? I understand that California has a lot of sunshine but the efficiency of the panels isn't the best....
I don't know what the efficiency is like. I heard that it takes about 20 years for them to pay for themselves, but that may be outdated and it depends on what kind of incentives you can get for installing them.
I installed solar panels on my house. About a 8-9 year break even. I've generated between 70-85% of my annual energy consumption every year since I installed them. If I had a battery system, I could be pretty damn close to completely independent of the grid.
EDIT: panels should have a 20-25+ year life, and effectively zero maintenance. Strongly positive after year 10-15.
Maybe in some parts of the world you need to do maintenance, but I don't. Rain keeps them clean. That's it. I've had the panels around 3.5 years now and I have not done a thing in that time.