Solar Cost – A One Time Investment?

by Boris M. Tashkent

With the limited supply of fossil energy people are now starting to find a better way to create energy. Photovoltaic panels offer us a new way to create electricity from the sunbeam. The output is in the form of DC voltage and it has to be inverted to AC voltage to serve our home appliance. Converting DC voltage into AC will need some more additional solar parts. The way you want your system to be will determine what parts to purchase. Basically there are three different options you may choose. The first one is very popular due to its simplicity: it’s called on-grid, meaning that the output of your photovoltaic panels will be sent to the utility grid for storing. People like this option because it is cheaper than other options. What makes on-grid system cheaper? It is because we don’t have to store the solar electricity in solar batteries so the only main parts we need to buy is solar inverter only. By eliminating the batteries we cut down the solar cost because these batteries are expensive, however this system also has a downside: During power outages you will be left alone without electricity supply. The next choice you have the solar system integrated with utility grid similar to the first option but backed up with solar batteries. The advantage of this system is it gives you power redundancy, the battery bank will release the current to power your home during utility blackout. To have this system you will need to buy solar regulator, solar batteries and solar inverter which differs from the solar inverter we are talking about in the first option. Bringing in these parts to the system obviously increase your spending budget. The last option is you have it off-grid. This system is normally picked up by people living in remote areas where utility lines are not available. Here you will need to purchase the solar charge controller, solar batteries and also solar inverter. Same as other options mentioned above you also need to buy other items such as wiring, terminal connections, etc. The inverter for this system is different from the other types mentioned above. You may need to backup this system with gas generator or wind turbine in case of sun outages. Having these figures above we can safely estimate about $20,000 – $60,000 is needed to start your home solar project. This cost is greatly varied and depends on how big you want to have your solar system to be. Voting for a full solar electricity system is not a good idea because the cost will jump high. The other factors that also contribute to the price are the quality of solar parts and installation cost. Solar inverters for example has a wide quality range and solar installation cost differs from one company to another. If you want to reduce the cost there is a good solution offered by the US government. Installing green energy in your house will allow you to get 30% federal tax benefit plus other tax benefit given by the states. By sending the electricity to the grid you also get some credits from the utility company. Because a full electricity substitution is very expensive you can start with making 15% of the electricity needed. You might be thinking that this number is too small but it will make a difference in the long run. You can upgrade your solar generator anytime once you have enough budget. If you assume that you need a one time investment only for this system you are probably wrong. Some solar parts have lifespan shorter than the others so you may need to replace some of them after years of operating time while other part such as photovoltaic panels can pass 20 years without problem. It is recommended to add this factor into your solar cost planning. If you are in doubt you can always search for online help. There are a lot of solar companies out there and they will be glad to help you finding the best solution for your home solar system.