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Abraham wrote: ↑Fri Jul 13, 2018 11:23 am Still crappy ROI.

Depending on sun, wind, methane gas, crop circles and prayer won't grant you energy.

100% agreed. In some of my calculations, I got negative ROI. This is how I see solar. It is a great concept. It has its merits. And yes, it will do its part to save the earth in due time. At this point, the technology behind it isn't mature enough yet. It's starting to make economic sense, but I feel we are still quite a ways off before we can really consider adopting it en masse.

I remember 15-20 years ago, CA was really pushing for the whole solar thing and was basically giving away 80% in rebates. And at the same time, it was more detrimental to the environment to utilize solar than not for one simple reason: it took more energy to produce the panels than it would ever produce in its lifetime. Nowadays it's different, but it's still not quite there.

I've done some thought on solar panels myself. I opted against it due to poor ROI. There are upsides and downsides that are hard to quantify, but at this point in time, there are far better places to put my money than into a solar system. YMMV, of course.

I actually would prefer a traditional rooftop system. Current rooftop panels are actually so much tougher than standard rooftop shingles that even in a big hailstorm, they act as armor so the likelihood of needing a roof replaced goes down. In fact, you may end up having cheaper homeowners insurance due to that fact alone. The only issue is that after a big hailstorm, inspectors will need to spend a little more time looking underneath the panels to make sure nothing got damaged.

Another upside of solar (especially with batteries) is that you are pretty much immune to power outages. While others will be battling with backup generators or UPSs, you'd be sitting at home wondering what others in your neighborhood are whining about.