top
logo

Please Help Us

User Login


Home Doing The Numbers
Solar - Doing The Numbers PDF Print E-mail
Written by Administrator   
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 01:12
The solar industry is not doing well (with the rest of the economy.)  But even prior to the recession the  EIA (Energy Information Administration) reported a 27% decrease in solar sales for 2007. Obviously the current rebates are ineffective. What follows is an attempt to demonstrate what would be required for residential solar to be a practical alternative.

So let's put some rough numbers together. The average American household uses about 10,500 kWh of energy per year. In order for a solar system to produce this amount of energy one would need about a 5,700 to 7,000 watt solar system. Today's figures assume a typical 200 Watt solar panel:

 

Today's Technology

Proposed Technology

36 - 200 Watt Panels would be required for the necessary system. Only 18 panels would be needed
20% efficient panel requiring 450 SQ. ft. of roof space 40% efficient panel requiring 250 SQ. ft. of roof space
$22,000 = 36 panels @ $600 plus hardware
$7,500 = 18 panels @ $330 plus hardware
Most homeowners will never be able to recoup this cost even with up to 50% rebates.Homeowners will be paying off solar hardware in place of utility bills so everyone will be able to afford the conversion

 

The Proposal

This model system having a 40% efficiency and a price tag of $7,500 would be both economically beneficial and practical to install for the average homeowner.  But this requires highly efficient solar panels to sell for $330 to provide an affordable system which any homeowner could recoup the cost of within 5 to 7 years. 

The question is what volume of panel production would need to produced to get numbers that would match this ideal system?

 

The Market
There are over 100 million homes in the United States.  The EIA reported this October that just under 64,000 complete solar thermal systems were shipped in 2008, down from just under 80,000 in 2006. To get a perspective if 60% of the homes are converted to solar, based on a 10 year time line, 6 million solar units per year would need to be produced.  If solar hardware is considered in terms of an annual production 100 times the current quantities, costs per unit would naturally be a fraction of those today.

 

 

Please see articles in EcoGeek and other places on the web for information on the solar industrie's plight.
Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 June 2010 10:14 )
 

bottom

Powered by Joomla!. Designed by: Free Joomla Templates, web hosting. Valid XHTML and CSS.