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Pastimes : All Things Technology - Media and Know HOW
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To: Don Green who wrote (2006)12/5/2025 9:53:55 AM
From: Kirk ©  Read Replies (1) of 2017
 
What happens if you add the projected lifetime of the system, annual costs to clean the panels to get peak efficiency and end-of-life removal and disposal costs? Also, "shady" installers can vanish after a year or so of installation and are unable to service the warranty so you have all the added hassle of finding someone to service the equipment.

Here in expensive California, the power companies are trying to hit up solar users with fixed monthly fees to help pay for fixed costs of the grid plus the HUGE discount given to "low income" users (about 35% off) which usually includes all the people working under the table, a large part of our economy.

Another issue is "net metering" where older installations here get a credit for each electron put onto the grid while the new installs pay the value of the electron which is far less when the sun is peak since we have so many solar panels already, there is an excess. Those users usually need a battery to store their own generated power to make the system make sense and the payback I think is mid teens in years.

Finally, my local power company, PG&E, claims that adding data centers will lower our rates by 1% to 2% per GW as it helps spread their massive overhead.

So I really don't trust anything the government or the power companies tell me about solar.
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