Comments about ‘Salt Lake County eyes solar for homes’

This has been done in Germany, with great savings in power, and a drop in the price of solar energy panels.

As the technology has evolved, so has the industry, to the point that Germany now exports solar energy panels, components, and technology.

Solar power is intermittent in nature and does not solve the need for base load facilities that produce power at night and when the sun does not shine.

Richard Stauffer

I'm glad to see there will be a web page designed to provide updated information. I've contemplated going this route but have been frustrated trying to find local suppliers and installers. One centralized page with links will be very helpful.

I wonder if the same type of consideration will be given to providing information on residential wind turbines and how problematic it would be to couple wind and solar in a residential setting. Wind would help to offset some of the concerns about the inability of the solar panels to produce at night. Of course, that's why you remain connected to the grid with net metering.

Public policy people need to recognize, quickly, the main obstruction to solar power is its cost. I've observed solar prices for 30+ years, it's still MUCH cheaper to buy electricity from a coal fired plant. WHEN solar gets cheap enough for me to put it on my rooftop, I'll be first in line. We need to stop the current incentives, mostly public policy related, that promote mining, drilling, refining, siting coal and petrol based power generation plants, these are all mature industries that don't need any incentives. Transfer the value of these incentives to solar research, manufacture, and residential installation. Residential solar is the holy grail of consumer electricity - we all have houses, and roofs are just wasted space that can easily be used by solar panels. No need to fill a desert and build transmission lines, just populate the rooftops with cheap solar panels. I'm starting another decade of searching, hoping, waiting. Maybe before I turn face up underground there'll be a large step forward in this arena.

Hey, Anon, you completely miss the value. Solar power comes on during the sunny day, which matches the air conditioning load. Solar's intermittency is not a problem, it is a solution - a potentially better one than building and operating major powerplants for intermittent peak loads. See my other post, the problem is solar's relatively high cost, not its intermittency.

I work for a roof accessory manufacture that manufactures here locally in American Fork, UT TRA-MAGE Roof Accessories. We currently manufacture roof mounting devices for solar panels as well as other roof accessories. We have partnered with 1 of the top 5 solar providers in Germany and hope to be selling solar panels here locally by the end of the summer, both photovoltaic and thermal panels. One of our goals is to make solar power affordable at a residential level, and with the help of the new government incentives discussed in this article it is very acheivable. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Great;dave4197, how do they generate power at night,
and what does one do when the roof is covered with 3ft of snow?

As stated above: Cost is still the major concern. We need to progress toward solar energy, but not too much tax money should flow until prices come down.

Solar Cost have been going down at least 10 percent a year for several years. Professionals in the industry are predicting grid parity within 5 years. Which means solar will be the same cost as other energy sources very soon. Also they are predicting the solar crystalline cells will have a production cost of under $1.00 a wall by the year 2012. Prices have came down about 15% in the last 6 months. And supply is increasing at the same level.

So, to get a 3kW system it costs $15,400, after rebates and credits. So, if residential power costs $0.08 per kWh, it would take nearly 90 years to pay back, probably less because the cost of electricity will go up. If you have a 3 kW system, assuming you average 8 hours of 3kW power per day 75% of the time, you will save $175.20 per year. With just a little bit of math applied, that is a really bad investment because it assumes that during that time that you will never have to do any repairs to the system. This is a really bad investment idea, but, if you are installing one to act as a backup power supply in the event of a natural disaster, then go for it, hope you never have to rely on it (not because it is solar, but because there was a disaster that has cut off power for an extended time).

RedShirt, I haven't checked your figures, so I'll take them at face value. But think how much fun it would be next time some far left loon derisively calls you a Limbaugh worshipping neocon and you can throw it back in his face that your house supplies all its own electricity and even sells some back to the grid so he has enough juice to power the growth lamps in his basement pot-farm!

besides, if what some of the other commenters are saying about the speed of price reductions is true, wait a couple years and it should be at break even. Break-even could accelerate if BO gets his wish of bankrupting the domsetic coal industry.

To "lost in DC | 1:06 p.m." I wouldn't mind renting out my roof to a company that wants to generate power with solar cells. Just like carbon credits. I would like to find a way to sell carbon credits based on the plants and grass at my house.

I hope you meant 3,000kwh a year system for a $30,000 and not 3kwh which would require 3000 systems to provide 9000kwh years supply using real math. Using your environmental math there may be a way that a 3,000kwh system will produce 4,500kwh a year but in real math that they teach us in engineering school it wont. If you want to replace 50% of your needs you would need $45,000 system. Since most home use $1000 a year on power that is using real math $1000/2 = $500 a year savings so using real math a system $45,000/$500 = 90 years to pay it off. That is without interest.