As you’ll recall [0], the other day I wrote about getting an assessment of our home’s solar-power potential. Which is to say, what kind of solar access [1] do we have, and how much will it cost us to exploit that access? I haven’t heard back from our solar man yet; he promised we’d see an estimate by next week.
In the meantime, my expansive and well-read audience will remember my qualms about going solar when you’ve got a house full of holes [1] and time-torn appliances [1] and other inefficient bugaboos. I stand by that. But there’s just a bit more to consider: The nationwide average for a total solar system install – panels [2], inverters [3], and labor – is about $7.50 per watt. Like I said [3], we use about 750 kilowatt-hours per month in electricity, which means we’d need a 6-kilowatt system to cover that 100 percent.
For that theoretically necessary 6-kilowatt system, that’s a massive chunk of cash: $45,000. (Or, for those of you keeping score at home, 3.6 new boilers [3].) That’s also money that could go a long way on other projects: upping our insulation [3], building gray-water gardens [3]. Hell, I’ve got a 400-square-foot work studio in the backyard – currently home to an infestation of carpenter ants – that I could rebuild into a palace of all things green for half that. We could buy a Toyota Land Cruiser [4] and make it into a frybrid [5] for that kind of dough.
The reason I’m looking at going solar now – not quite doing it yet, but looking at it – is that solar power exists in a sort of false economy at the moment. That $45,000 system won’t really cost me $45,000 – not even close. For starters, the federal tax credit allowed by the 2005 Energy Policy Act [6] effectively lops a couple grand right off the top. And here in Colorado, the local utility is required to hand over a $4.50-per-watt [7] rebate thanks to the historic Amendment 37 us Coloradoans passed back in 2004. All of which brings us, without any effort at all, to a $16,000 system. Pretty handy.
Even better: In the works over in Washington D.C. is the Securing America’s Energy Independence Act [8] – a.k.a. H.R. 550 [9] in the House and S. 590 [10] in the Senate – that will not only extend solar tax credits to 2016, but will up them to $3.00 per watt. And potentially
backdate those credits to January 2007. Meaning if we install a solar system now, we’ll get $4.50 per watt from our utility and $3.00 per watt from Uncle Sam. That brings our overall cost down to… well, down to nothing at all.
Sure, the world of theoreticals is fun and fluffy (and only maybe hopefully possibly likely), but my point is that right now is probably the best time in a long while to look into going solar, one where the normal economics don’t apply. So get y’all to a solar consultant [11], check your local rebates [12], and get estimating.
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By the way, while you’re linking around the Internet today, be sure to push for some Congressional action [13] on the Securing America’s Energy Independence Act. Think of the cheap solar!