At Ars Technica there’s an interesting status report on residential solar power in the United States. Things are, apparently, proceeding very well:
As is probably abundantly clear to those who have read this far, the story of residential solar power is complex and constantly changing, due to the rapid pace of research and the ever-shifting regulatory landscape. But technology and economics have evolved to the point where we can say, confidently, that rooftop solar power now makes good sense if you own a home in a sunny part of the country… that is, unless local politics erect too many obstacles.
For those in less hospitable climes, the purely rational case is harder to make. But you still may be swayed, nevertheless, by the prospects of gaining a measure of independence from your local power utility and by joining the vanguard of citizens striving to take some responsibility for their personal contributions to our planet’s looming climate problem.
It would be interesting to see what the economies of the various forms of power generation would be in the absence of massive subsidies. It’s not just us. The Chinese, for example, have been investing heavily solar power manufacturing, obviously with the intention of becoming the primary source for them. That has had the effect of driving the price down sharply. Will that continue? Who knows?
My guess is that in the absence of subsidies we’d find that one size did not, indeed, fit all. In some places solar power makes great sense. In others wind power would be a better choice. There are undoubtedly places and uses where natural gas or nuclear or even coal are the best economic choices.
If only there were some form of political organization capable of handling different conditions and requirements in different places!
This is something I’ve spent a bit of time looking at as i researched solar for our motorhome (which is now our full-time residence).
There are some pretty enticing options out there for homes, but the problem is the time required to see payback. In Florida, for example, the average electricity bill is ~$2k a year, while a solar/battery system to provide 100% of the power for an average home will run $40-50k. Smaller systems give a lot more value, but even covering 70% of home electricity use for $15-20k is going to have a long payoff. And utilities are starting to get squeamish about users selling unused power back.
Systems with only panels and no on-site storage are considerably cheaper (panels continue to be very cheap), but their utility isn’t nearly as good.
It would also be interesting to know what the impetus really is what with the recent exposure of NOAA doctoring the analysis again.
Andy – are you driving a Class A, C or trailing? What model?
Drew,
We’re in a 2008 Newmar Class A. So far it’s working out well, we’ve been living in it for over a month now. We’re fully embracing a more minimalist lifestyle and so far I don’t miss the McMansion with the pool. The nice thing is, even though I’m not working anymore, our net income is about the same because our expenses are so much lower.
This is probably not permanent, it’s more of a Sabbatical to focus on our family and get the kids a different educational experience and do what we loved before kids, which is travel. We haven’t really liked the outsourcing 90% of our kids waking hours in school or daycare for that last five years while we’ve both worked stressful jobs, so this will be a time to reset.
My wife retires from the military this summer and that’s when we’ll hit the road for probably a year (that’s what we’ve saved for anyway). After that we’ll likely settle down again until the kids are done with school. No idea where that will be, but I’m hoping for out west. I miss my mountains.