Most people don't know just how affordable solar is. So I had a pretty darn accurate cost and savings estimate done for him.
Here is an insolation map
Cali Insolation Data
There is a real easy way to calculate energy production by just knowing the isolation either in sun-hours or kWH/m2/day. It is not tricky at all, you can do all kind of calcs by day of year, time of day, tilt of panels, compass angle of panels, BUT all that is unnecessary in order to analyze solar as an investment and to get a good annual average.
Sunhours * # of PV Panels * Panel Rated DC Watts *.824 = kWH per day
VERY VERY simple
Fed has tax credit of 30%, very simple
Different areas and states have various incentives
Expected Performance-Based Buydowns for systems under 30 kW began in 2007 at $2.50/W AC for residential and commercial systems (adjusted based on expected performance) and $3.25/W AC for government entities and nonprofits (adjusted based on expected performance). The incentive levels decline as the aggregate capacity of PV installations increases. Incentives will be awarded as a one-time, up-front payment based on expected performance, which is calculated using equipment ratings and installation factors such as geographic location, tilt, orientation and shading. Click here for current incentive levels for each utility. Systems under 30 kW also have the option of opting for a performance-based incentive rather than the incentive based on expected performance.
At around 3.8kWAC for my proposed system, they could receive State incentive of
3800*2.5 = $9,680
See proposal, net cost around $7000
Annual Production around 7350 kWH
At his really high rates, that is a savings of $8,230 per year
Total Lifetime system production
| 205230 | kwh total produced | |||||||||
$7000 system cost / 205230 = 3.4 cents per kWH
Annual rate of return on investment around 124% (compared that to 3% on a 10 year T bill)
What part of no brainer does this take to understand? No evacuation zone.
