A few months ago, I posted a thread about potentially installing solar panels on our roof (http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60122).
We ended up doing the project and turned it on about 3 weeks ago. (Pics attached) I just wanted to give an update if anyone else is interested in tackling something like this.
Back in October, my old college roommate posted a status update on FaceBook about a program that our state was doing with a link. I went to it on a whim to see what it was all about. There was a finite amount of money available(I forget how much) that was allotted to encourage people to install renewable energy systems(solar and wind for this program). If you wanted to do it, you had to fill out an online worksheet and if approved, you would get a reservation for a rebate. I asked for a 20kw solar PV system and it was approved. The amount of the rebate was $2 per watt for the first 10,000 watts and $1.75 per watt for the next 10,000 watts. In order to claim the rebate, the system would have to be up and running in 6 months.
Over the next several months, I researched equipment, talked to the power company, and met with a guy locally who had installed a PV system on his house.
I was able to find a great deal on thin film panels for only $.98 per watt which is less than half the cost per watt than mono crystalline panels. The downside to thin film is that they require more area to produce the same amount of electricity than a smaller mono crystalline panel could produce. This meant that I couldn't get 20kw on my roof but at half the price, at least I could make it work financially. By completely filling up the area I had to work with, I could get 220 panels to fit. At 60 watts per panel, that equals 13.2 kw.
Next I needed to figure out how to mount them. Unfortunately, the cost of racking specially designed for solar panels is pretty spendy. The cheapest I could find was going to cost nearly $20,000. Since we had just finished an addition to our building that included the use of bar joists, I climbed up on a ladder to see if I could find anything that identified where they came from. Sure enough, there was a tag from the manufacturer which turned out to be just a couple of hours away from us. I determined how much the panels weighed and how much additional we need to allow for snow load and then called the company to get a quote. I also asked them if they could galvanize the joists for us since they would be outside. They told me that they could get them galvanized for us or we could just buy the joists and get them galvanized ourselves. They gave us the name of the company who could do them for us so that's what we did. I paid $3,000 for the bar joists and another $1,000 to have them galvanized plus about $700 to a guy with a rollback for picking them up, taking them to them galvanizer, and then bringing them to us.
After buying inverters, wires, combiner boxes, fuses, disconnects, bar joists, solar panels, and paying for all the freight on these items, we ended up spending about $30,000. I hired a general contractor to install the bar joists and mount the solar panels for another $5,000 and an electrician to hook everything up for another $5,000 so we ended up with $40,000 in the whole deal.
The rebate check from the state will be right at $24,000, so my out of pocket expense will be $16,000. I can get a 30% federal tax credit but it's not yet clear how that it's calculated. Is it 30% of $40k or 30% of $16k? I've read arguments for each case but my guess is that it will be the lower amount. So that gives me another $5,300.
My energy cost savings are dependent on the weather but based on my estimates, we'll save about $3,000 per year here.
Lastly, I can register to sell Solar Renewable Energy Credits to power companies. In my state, I can register to sell them in Washington DC and PA. My system should generate about 10 SREC's per year and the current market price is about $300 / SREC so that will generate another $3,000 per year.
All told, I calculate that we'll recoup our investment in less than 2 years. Assuming that that energy costs stay the same, we'll then save $3,000 per year for the life of the system (warrantied for 20 years). If the SREC programs continue to stay in place, we'll also get another $3,000 per year from that. Over the remaining 18 years of the system, that equates to $108,000 over and above the initial cost.
We'll also benefit from the good will created by our efforts. Since installing our system, we've been asked to host an event by our local economic development authority because this year's theme was "Shades of Green, the Future of Business". This event was attended by local businesses and media. We picked up couple orders from it already and there was an article in the paper that included photos of the event along with quotes from me. Since then, we were interviewed for a feature story in the newspaper and have had a TV station contact us about doing a story.
The last benefit I'll mention may or may not be important to you - It's good for our environment. The inverters we purchased provide reports that tell us how much power is generated and estimate of how many pounds of CO2 have not been generated by using this renewable energy. In the 21 days since our system has been running, our inverters estimate that over 2,000 lbs of CO2 have been saved. I'm not a tree hugger but I can't find a thing wrong with that.
If anyone has any questions about what we did or would like more information, I'm happy to help however I can.
Thanks,
We ended up doing the project and turned it on about 3 weeks ago. (Pics attached) I just wanted to give an update if anyone else is interested in tackling something like this.
Back in October, my old college roommate posted a status update on FaceBook about a program that our state was doing with a link. I went to it on a whim to see what it was all about. There was a finite amount of money available(I forget how much) that was allotted to encourage people to install renewable energy systems(solar and wind for this program). If you wanted to do it, you had to fill out an online worksheet and if approved, you would get a reservation for a rebate. I asked for a 20kw solar PV system and it was approved. The amount of the rebate was $2 per watt for the first 10,000 watts and $1.75 per watt for the next 10,000 watts. In order to claim the rebate, the system would have to be up and running in 6 months.
Over the next several months, I researched equipment, talked to the power company, and met with a guy locally who had installed a PV system on his house.
I was able to find a great deal on thin film panels for only $.98 per watt which is less than half the cost per watt than mono crystalline panels. The downside to thin film is that they require more area to produce the same amount of electricity than a smaller mono crystalline panel could produce. This meant that I couldn't get 20kw on my roof but at half the price, at least I could make it work financially. By completely filling up the area I had to work with, I could get 220 panels to fit. At 60 watts per panel, that equals 13.2 kw.
Next I needed to figure out how to mount them. Unfortunately, the cost of racking specially designed for solar panels is pretty spendy. The cheapest I could find was going to cost nearly $20,000. Since we had just finished an addition to our building that included the use of bar joists, I climbed up on a ladder to see if I could find anything that identified where they came from. Sure enough, there was a tag from the manufacturer which turned out to be just a couple of hours away from us. I determined how much the panels weighed and how much additional we need to allow for snow load and then called the company to get a quote. I also asked them if they could galvanize the joists for us since they would be outside. They told me that they could get them galvanized for us or we could just buy the joists and get them galvanized ourselves. They gave us the name of the company who could do them for us so that's what we did. I paid $3,000 for the bar joists and another $1,000 to have them galvanized plus about $700 to a guy with a rollback for picking them up, taking them to them galvanizer, and then bringing them to us.
After buying inverters, wires, combiner boxes, fuses, disconnects, bar joists, solar panels, and paying for all the freight on these items, we ended up spending about $30,000. I hired a general contractor to install the bar joists and mount the solar panels for another $5,000 and an electrician to hook everything up for another $5,000 so we ended up with $40,000 in the whole deal.
The rebate check from the state will be right at $24,000, so my out of pocket expense will be $16,000. I can get a 30% federal tax credit but it's not yet clear how that it's calculated. Is it 30% of $40k or 30% of $16k? I've read arguments for each case but my guess is that it will be the lower amount. So that gives me another $5,300.
My energy cost savings are dependent on the weather but based on my estimates, we'll save about $3,000 per year here.
Lastly, I can register to sell Solar Renewable Energy Credits to power companies. In my state, I can register to sell them in Washington DC and PA. My system should generate about 10 SREC's per year and the current market price is about $300 / SREC so that will generate another $3,000 per year.
All told, I calculate that we'll recoup our investment in less than 2 years. Assuming that that energy costs stay the same, we'll then save $3,000 per year for the life of the system (warrantied for 20 years). If the SREC programs continue to stay in place, we'll also get another $3,000 per year from that. Over the remaining 18 years of the system, that equates to $108,000 over and above the initial cost.
We'll also benefit from the good will created by our efforts. Since installing our system, we've been asked to host an event by our local economic development authority because this year's theme was "Shades of Green, the Future of Business". This event was attended by local businesses and media. We picked up couple orders from it already and there was an article in the paper that included photos of the event along with quotes from me. Since then, we were interviewed for a feature story in the newspaper and have had a TV station contact us about doing a story.
The last benefit I'll mention may or may not be important to you - It's good for our environment. The inverters we purchased provide reports that tell us how much power is generated and estimate of how many pounds of CO2 have not been generated by using this renewable energy. In the 21 days since our system has been running, our inverters estimate that over 2,000 lbs of CO2 have been saved. I'm not a tree hugger but I can't find a thing wrong with that.
If anyone has any questions about what we did or would like more information, I'm happy to help however I can.
Thanks,
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