Considering Solar in MA.

[X93]

I've had 5 local, reputable installers come out to my house to give me estimates on going solar. I have an average size ranch, so from what I've been given by these contractors, it looks like a 7.5kw system will cover 95-102% of my electricity needs if I use SunPower x20 panels.

There's a huge spread in pricing -- from $4.39/kwh to over $6/kwh. Of course, I'm going to negotiate on pricing, but it would help to know how much I might expect to get the cost down?

Also, I am going to finance the system @ 2.99% for up to 10 yrs.

Thanks for any guidance,

[EatenByLimestone]

How are the estimates different? Are all components of similar quality and have the ability to add more to the system if you want to in the future?

[daveferg]

Unless you're unused solar power is being stored in a large number of batteries, the key to your savings is really how much you end up selling back to the power company. Now, out here, electric companies are doing their best to eliminate the amount paid for buying back electricity. This could be a real factor in your future savings. Frankly, with our current government's tendency to give big business whatever it wants, you could end up losing money big time.

[mikefm101]

Several neighbors here have signed up with solar companies in which the company owns the panels, the homeowner pays a fixed price for the power and sells back excess to the utility. The company is responsible for maintenance. If the homeowner wants to reshingle the roof they pay a few hundred dollars and the company removes and reinstalls the panels. The panel companies responsible for hookup to the utility. Basically, the solar company becomes the electric provider and owns the power generating infrastructure like a regular utility.

All in all those neighbors have been happy although none have been in use more than 18 months. I think it's a 20 year agreement that transfers to new home owners should the house sell.

Check with the utility on ease of interconnecting. We have Unitil, which is run by complete crooks and do everything possible to delay or prevent solar hookups, among other anti consumer things.

Vivant Solar is one some people have used for this.

Mike

[Dumb_Polack]

We put it up on our house August 2014.

Went with New England Clean Energy (out of Hudson, MA)

After all was said and done (ie 9K fed tax rebate, + our town ran a "solar challenge"..the more who put it up the more we'd all get back from the installer), our out the door price was approx 19K.

Savings so far are $2020. That doesn't include the latest SREC check with will come Nov 15th. (for those that don't know, Mass has a program whereby you sell excess power to the grid and a middleman (in our case Knollwood Energy) sells it to the power company and sends us a quarterly check. I'm estimating that Nov check should be about $500ish, so we will have saved approx $2500 this year. So I figure it will pay for itself in 8 years then the rest is gravy.

I have a copy of the spreadsheet if you want to see it.

Check to see if your utility will give you a refund too. If so, have the Solar Report done BEFORE you sign a contract to install. The rep who sold us ours said we'd qualify for an add'l $5k back from Hudson Light & Power, but when they did the solar report after the system was up, they said our chimney shaded a bit of 1 panel sometime between 2-6PM between May and September. Don't quote me on those dates and time, but bottomline, we didn't get the refund. If we had, the payback would have been < 7 years.


Good luck & let me know if you go with New England Clean Energy...I could get a referral bonus from it!

[X93]

Thanks for the replies. There's a lot to consider.

After the initial rounds of estimates, I've had three companies make adjustments so I am comparing apples to apples -- meaning they're all proposing the same system infrastructure. There's just a huge difference in the pricing, so I want to push hard to get the best pricing if I can.

Thanks!

[Mr_Mike]

Parts are about $2 per watt. Panels are $1 and inverter and racking another $1. All else is permitting and labor. It can be installed in 3 days with a small crew.

[paulmaine]

Doing a cost estimate of what you could do as an alternative (investing rather than solar) with the money by investing:

Say you took $10,000 that you were going to put into solar. If that was put into the stock market at 10 years and 6% interest you would have $17,900 and at 20 years you would have $32,000. That assumes the money is in a tax deferred IRA or 401K. You would likely have to pay 25% tax at withdrawing it.

Say you took that $10,000 and paid income tax on it and put the remaining $7,500 in a Roth IRA after 10 years you have $13,431 and after 20 years you would have $24,053 tax free to accumulate.

I would not want solar panels on my roof in the Massachusetts weather with ice, snow, winter hurricanes, and heat. They would likely get damaged over time or degrade. It is likely any long term guarantees on panels or installation would be lost as companies go out of business.

Would your home taxes go up now or if laws changed? How about home insurance -is that extra for the solar system? Sooner or later shingles have to be replaced-what about the nuisance of dealing with that?

[GHR]

paulmaine said:

---

Doing a cost estimate of what you could do as an alternative (investing rather than solar) with the money by investing:

Say you took $10,000 that you were going to put into solar. If that was put into the stock market at 10 years and 6% interest you would have $17,900 and at 20 years you would have $32,000. That assumes the money is in a tax deferred IRA or 401K. You would likely have to pay 25% tax at withdrawing it.

Say you took that $10,000 and paid income tax on it and put the remaining $7,500 in a Roth IRA after 10 years you have $13,431 and after 20 years you would have $24,053 tax free to accumulate.

---

I was going to say something along those lines. I would rather invest the money.

But with loan money being 3-4% currently, it is tempting to invest the cash I have and borrow to pay for large items.

[paulmaine]

"I was going to say something along those lines. I would rather invest the money.

But with loan money being 3-4% currently, it is tempting to invest the cash I have and borrow to pay for large items. "

Any financial breaks one has from solar may go away should politics affect it-The two political parties in our country seem to be at odds for solar.
I agree about the low cost of borrowing -It costs about $500 for every $100,000 on a GI Bill loan. You should be able to make 6% in the market over a ten year period.

the overall gain from solar out west may be affordable but Massachusetts is a different animal.