The Oil Drum: Local

Well, You might not get it until you've got it.. or till you really needed it.  But I've got some of them, and wouldn't trade that security for much of anything.  Mine aren't even up on the roof yet, but I know I can have power a few minutes after the grid fails, were it to do so, and could be getting juice for years to come from those panels, with little or no maintenance, and just a couple of branches and ropes to balance them on, if need-be.  The payback isn't even really an issue for me, tho' I can get my money back with them pretty easily, generating for myself, renting them, and could resell, likely at a profit, as well.  But people pay a very wide range of prices for electricity already, particularly for the convenience of 'remote power'..  if you saw the KWH price for your AA batts or for a Laptop battery, Cell phone, flashlight, WalkieTalkies, that .08/kwh would be balanced out with a much broader reality of what we shell out for electricity.  The weather and the chaos of the world energy relationships could bring that reality home to us very quickly.

Talk about the perfect being the enemy of the 'Really, very good'..  even on the equator, PV is not ever perfect, and it's not cheap.  It's just a good way of getting some watts.  No moving parts, long lifespan, not 'terribly' complicated.  You can just connect a panel to a couple batteries with paperclips, if that's all you've got, and it will charge, assuming they are somewhat matched up.  

Best to you,
Bob

'He's so contrary, if I heard he fell into the river, I'd look for the body upstream'

If there was a 'perfect' replacement, there wouldn't be much to discuss here, now would there?

Hello ImSceptical,

I have a 2.28 kw grid tie system in Southern Maine. After all the State and Federal rebates the system cost around $12,000. My theoretical payback was around 24 years. I will update the estimmate after I have a year's data. This is not a good return but I believe electricity rates are going to go up sharply making it look good in the future. And I'd rather spend my money on this than on a fancy car. The downside with a grid tie system is you don't have backup when the power goes out. To prevent islanding the systems are required to go off line in a blackout. But adding batteries and additional electronics to the system for backup really kills the economics. Plus you have to replace the batteries every 5+ years. It is expensive ($2k) and a hassle because the batteries my installer uses weigh 150 pounds each. I asked my installer about the NiMh batteries new for commercial backup. He believes these will be available for home use within 3 years and cost about $5k for a home sized bank plus a new $3k inverter / charger. Very expensive when you think about it but they would last a very long time. If the electric grid becomes as unreliable as some are predicting the cost may be worth the insurance. Hope this helps.

The equatorial regions of the planet are often cloudy and not very good for solar use. The US has some of the prime solar real estate in this world.

I think your thinking about solar is mostly clouded by a failure to inform yourself about the facts. There is no easier way to keep oneself in the dark than to believe in ones own "imachinations" rather than reading a good textbook on the subject.

:-)