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Very disappointed in the video not pointing out the biggest problem with solar: it is niche and also requires user management. Batteries would solve solar's inconsistency; but batteries are a huge problem themselves.
Just for you guys to know. I searched up solar systems lately and found an offer for around 10,500 € for a 8.000kWh system + 5kWh battery system. So that's even cheaper :)
@@longdang2681 your brain is niche. Solar energy powers everything alive, and every human endeavor. People like you are just so far packed down into your own deranged reality that you are squeezing facts out of the bubble to support your delusions.
Over the past few years and during a few more, the Netherlands is actually phasing out the payment for excess generated power. Although annoying for the consumers that want to buy solar panels, this is due to our power grid being completely filled up. Additionally, I think it serves to stimulate research into battery technology, which should hopefully follow the same trend as solar panels.
I'm glad you mentioned this, I think people fail to think about the fact that the grid doesn't need the excess energy depending on the demand. The peak point at which solar produces energy is also the time where the energy is least needed, the middle of the day. Batteries are the future for this issue, if we can store excess energy efficiently we can start putting all the extra energy to use.
@@scottserage9022 See that;s where you are kinda wrong. If we continue to move towards EVs what we need is an outlet in every parking spot even if it's just a normal 2300W standard outlet. Most of the time cars stand in a parking lot so why not slow charge them while they do so every then when we are at work? It's not that expensive to mount 2300 W outlets and each car comes with a slow charger from the manufacturer so it should be pretty easy to implement. Then you can use that excess energy to fill up the cars every day and it will also not cost the companies too much money as the electricity will be cheap. Only start charging between 10 and 18 o'clock for example so you use solar energy for that. It can easily be implemented with the only condition for people to want it. Force the company to slowly add outlets as the EV adoption goes on and by the time gas powered vehicles will become rare (about 2050) we can have both new battery technology and a way to power our vehicles for cheap.
I used to work in sales for a company that offers a solar leasing business model. They basically made solar affordable by requiring nothing upfront paid, and only charging payments once the panels are installed. The power bill you normally pay for is cancelled out by the generated solar energy, and you use that money to pay for your panels. In about 5 years’ time you would be enjoying free power. I thought that was genius. But if only people understood it and let the numbers talked, it would have been an easy job.
@@CharleneCTX yeah fair enough I do get where you’re coming from especially when your roof simply can’t fit enough panels to power the entire house. I still think it will be pretty good to have your power bills permanently cut down in a few years, though.
@@CharleneCTX yah, for a house that big, that's the kind of cash a person can blow on a pair of sneakers, not much at all. i guess since you took the time to comment you're already going nuts for efficiency to get it that low. maybe solar water heating would be a small extra.
I'm from Germany and you sound so optimistic in your video about the EEG as well as about the renewable infrastructure here. The truth is, that of course there are some progresses, but the bureaucracy and incompetent politicians make it less efficient as it could be. Also it's not so easy to install these panels and to flow the electric current into the power grid
At the same time it goes to show that germany NEEDS to do everything it can, in spite of being such a small country, because other, bigger countries may follow. So it's right that we try.
@@interferenzbrille_2542only problem being that corruption and lobbyism is so high in our country that it takes well over 50 years for change to happen. Currently we’re running ourselves into the ground and people living here are unhappier than in a long time. I’m glad when I can move away from this country despite originally loving it
Research into battery and power storage technologies should also be ramped up to further optimize this energy source. Right now power storage is a bigger challenge for micro users than generating.
For everyone wondering about recycling the panels, France is opening the world's biggest recycling center for solar panels. More will come. The industry is always growing and adapting. Solar is the future!
@@TheAmericanAmerican You couldn't have picked a more carbon releasing battery than electric batteries xD. The best batteries are hydroelectric batteries, but they come with significant inefficiencies. The best option is still no battery, which you don't need if you have a nuclear power plant running 24/7.
@@8is which have their own downsides and are expensive as duck, which we could discuss here for hours, but it doesn't matter anyway, nothing not planned right now will help against climate change in the next 20 years, so the discussion is pointless anyway
I work as Electrical Engineer in a distribution company and one of our team's scope is evaluating the electricity produced by the Solar Panels(from residentials, commercials, or industrial) if they meet the ideal parameters before they can send the produced electricity to the grid. The electricity produced should meet those said required parameters because if they dont, they might disrupt or lower the efficiency of the entire grid or circuit. Usually this process can take up to 6 months.
@@krux02 We already do that. You can buy EVs that talk to the chargers that talk to the energy supplier. They charge when the supply is greenest. Most people have cheap night rates for EV charging and if this takes your import outside this they'll only charge you the night rate.
For an individual house, that's true. We've had a lot of hot, sunny days recently and we can generate about 50KWh on those days. The house only uses about 15 in a day and some of that comes from the grid overnight and charging the battery. So out of the 50 we generate we directly use about 8 and 42 goes back to the grid. Which is inefficient (except it generates me a lot of money) but that power will go to run several other houses which then don't need power generated by burning fossil fuels. Perhaps in a few decades there will be so much solar on our houses that on sunny days we can run the entire country on it and there will be so much excess we won't know where to put it. But that's going to take a long time to reach there.
@@FlatToRentUK Assuming that full solar power, lithium batteries have a capacity of 250 watts per kilogram (near the physical limit), with current reserves we have 4 Terawatt hours of total capacity or 15 minutes on a planetary scale, all this without counting that there are days cloudy, with rain or that the heat reduces the efficiency of the panel... I'm sorry but this is not a solution :(
The lowest electric bill we had with solar was $19.10 because that is the processing fee for the electric company. Before the solar panels out electric bill was over $150 to $300 depending on the weather and seasons
In cost analysis, you should take into account the cost of panels and inverters. You should also take into account that, in 10 years, you will need a new inverter and repair your panels. Most likely, it's all more expensive.
@@sopfhie748 Impossible, somebody else have to pay then. Perhaps cheap chinese workers who produce them. Investing in nuclear energy would be cheaper in long run and we are talking about million times more effective energy source..
Here in Portugal all new houses are pretty much obligated to have solar panels. The buying costs of panels Vs electricity costs make it so it's a no brainer to have solar panels.
@@vanivanov9571 $17k-20k for your house is pretty expensive. Even with the 60% decrease thats still $8k and you won't see your investment return for 7 years. Thats a pretty big hit on anyone's bank account below the upper class
@@vanivanov9571 The EU had a lot of funds to widen solar coverage for the regular people (just look at Germany with their 85-90% financed individual projects). Well, that was the plan. Our great government interpreted this as "we have a lot of free money so let's build a lot of solar plants and sell the electricity to the people anyway". There you have it. We are at a point where most people can't buy meat whenever they want. Solar is their the last concern sadly.
Exactly. The only affordable ones are those units for apartment balconies, that can generate 300w tops and are about an meter wide. I was surprised seeing those for 300€ at lidl, but it’s too bad I can’t afford an apartment with balcony. It would definitely have been cool to charge small-medium appliances with it
Great video! On a more macro scale, it is notable that both residential and commercial solar can do a great deal to relieve stress on the regional electrical grid. Because every watt generated and consumed locally is a watt that does not stress a distant power plant nor the grid to transmit that watt. And the grid can become a critical bottleneck for global electrification efforts. Residential and commercial solar "unloads" the grid and starts building a distributed power architecture. Distributed systems are naturally highly resilient by their very nature versus centralized monolithic ones that largely exist today. This situation is most evident during heat waves when the regional grid experiences some of its most extreme loads from all the A/C running at the same time. However, heatwaves always come with abundant sunshine which the residential and commercial solar panels will absolutely soak up. So a solar home not only removes its own load on the grid but likely also partially powers their neighbor's home loads and A/C. Same with commercial buildings: malls, big box stores, etc. which have huge A/C loads due to their massive interior size. When thousands of such installs are running, it will really start having a benefit to the local grid during heatwaves -- which will become more frequent and more intense with climate change. Solar is the only major power source that blends almost seamlessly into the urban landscape with noiseless and pollution free power due to its naturally thin design and all solid state electronics.
$17,000 in 2022!!! In 2020 I got a 7.9Kw system for $6,500 AUD. That’s like $4,300 USD for a system than can run your home… and our system has paid itself off in 3 years here in Australia.
As optimistic as this video is, you are leaving out many of the other drawbacks. In the US alone, utility companies are price gouging 'prosumers' for the audacity of producing their own power, effectively negating the price savings solar is supposed to provide in large regions of the nation. Not to mention that without a house battery system, most solar goes to the grid first, not the home, meaning brownouts and blackouts still leave those homes in the dark. Especially due to the exorbitant costs of home battery systems and their associated energy management systems.
In what way are utility companies able to 'price gouge' those with solar? Usually solar is configured to output excess energy to the grid, not all of it. It is not illegal to generate your own electricity, so this may be a contractual issue.
@@mso1ps4it many places in the US, it IS illegal to export your own electricity to the grid, Electrical service is required to be certified for habitation, and extra connection fees are charged to those who don’t use enough electricity.
Solar post are becoming popular in my country and we got one last month and it was great. It light up the side walk at night. People might think it's not a huge deal but it kinda is.
@@robertwilson2007 Not true, We will still have solar energy at night while people are using it, it will just drain them. Maybe there will be a meter that shows you how much energy you have left? Probably have to get a generator to store power in and not just have all the solar power in the solar roofs. Are you thinking that it will only work when there's always sun out and power off when there's no sun?
@@TheUnknownD Well if this solar and wind stuff was so great why is Germany cutting back on those ambitions. Could it be they are not all that great at providing a energy at a reasonable price and environmental cost?
@@robertwilson2007 One word. Money. Also, They probably don't have enough Resources yet. A lot of people sadly don't want to benifit society for the better.
@@TheUnknownD When solar panels and batteries become efficient enough and powerful enough. People will start buying them until that time comes ..... NO DICE.
Well in Lebanon, due to power outage (blamed on the corrupt state which didn't invest in the country infrastructure) and skyrocketing prices per KW by gangs controlled private power generators, householders are obligated to invest in solar energy as a form of "rebel" against all the corruption I mentioned earlier. And it seems like a good bet.
Yup, solar ends up being cheaper than the monthly generator fees! I'm sure some of those politicians (gebran bassil akid) feel proud that they encouraged the country to get solar hahah
For most people, it's not worth it. For example, in Romania, I pay about $25 a month for electricity. That's just $3000 over 10 years. To break even on a $20k solar panel system would take what, 70 years?
I recently got a quote. I was told that I can save -$20 by installing roof-top solar. It estimated that my monthly electricity bill will be reduced from $70 to $90. After the quote, I got endless emails and phones calls everyday asking me why don't I want to take advantage of this saving.
Tech ingredients did a good video explaining that placing mirrors on either side of a panel that orient with sun movement can vastly increase output without drastically increasing price only slightly increasing complexity. Don’t see any commercial options but not bad diy prospects.
Hey can you do a video about:how do chickens lay eggs and how do humans get sick by just showering in the rain. Btw im from philippines and your animations are more understandable (idk if thats a word) than going to school
I'm my country (Nicaragua) the government charges you an extra tax plus if you have the audacity to install solar panels plus making the permit process an absolute nightmare because you are not longer paying them
I started small by charging my phone with solar power by rigging up a 20v solar cell with a buck converter and a power bank.....kind of feels satisfying seeing it charge up during the day....cost about $50 to rig everything
@@wipeoutxl21 weird, negative outlook you have there. if you spend $50 on a ballgame or concert, how do you recoup that and make a profit? you don't- it's money you spent because you wanted to. but according to you, if you spend that $50 on a solar charger instead of a ballgame or concert, you're silly because you're not going to ~make~ money on your purchase. and there's also the fact that, if the commentor can charge their phone during a power outage, they could make a call that save s thousands of dollars or even lives. plus, solar power is not a thing because it makes or saves you money. it helps save your grandkids from living and dying in an apocalyptic hellscape- again, saving lives.
@@nonyabizness.original well said, esspecially the last sentence, we're just having drought here around munich again, the grass is all dead, you just have to rub your foot against the ground and it's all gone and exposes whatever the definition of totally dried ground is
@@nonyabizness.original I really wish these videos would show the truth behind renewable energy. Solar is good because the sun hitting the photocells doesn't create co2 but mining lithium for batteries and silicone is so much worse than what these videos show. Also destroying eco systems to create the fields needed too
Just building solars on our house and I learn that to have autonomy from the grid is only possible if you setup dedicated home cabeling (you define which devices/plugs will failover) or using a battery (IMO not worth yet as too much expensive)
I installed solar panels last year and from my experience so far they are 100% worth it. Obviously that's decided based on the numbers. So if you like numbers, here they are. If you don't, look away now. I live in the East of the UK. I have a roof that's got a perfect pitch but is a bit too east facing to be optimal. Imagine a line running through a clock from about 1:00 to 7:00. So we do great in the morning but not as well in the afternoon. Our system is big for domestic installs, 8.9KW with 6KW inverter and 5KW battery. We paid £12.5k for it. Given that cost the average saving we need to achieve per day to get our money back in certain timeframes is - - 5 year payback = £6.84 - 6 year payback = £5.70 - 7 year payback = £4.89 It was installed in October but took a couple of months to get our tariff changed and export setup so I started collecting data in mid December. The flaw is I don't have a full year of data that I could then extrapolate across several years but the picture is becoming much clearer as we move into summer. For each month (or half month for December) here's the average daily saving for that month and the overall average at the end of that month. You'll see as each month improves it is dragging up the overall average - December = £1.94 £1.94 January = £2.71 £2.45 February = £4.12 £3.07 March = £4.70 £3.55 April* = £8.13 £4.56 May = £8.97 £5.38 June (to the 23rd) = £10.67 £5.99 *In April we moved tariff to one that pays more for export and we export a lot given the size of our system. The huge improvement in April from March is partly down to this and partly down to more sun. The key conclusion from this is that we passed the 7 year payback in May and passed the 6 year payback on 13th June. Across July, August and September I expect to comfortably pass the 5 year payback average before falling back across October and November before I get a full year of data in mid December. This will vary though as energy prices fall as they're expected to do. Given the commonly quoted payback times of 8/10/12 years you can see why I'm delighted with the system. I have done a fair bit of tweaking of various things to maximise the savings. Changing tariffs, having the battery charge at certain times, dishwasher runs at night, etc.. One thing I don't do is force discharge the battery though. Hope that's helpful.
Just realised I should also put some generation stats up in case there's interest. We use a lot of electricity (big house, several children, wife that boils enough water to float a battleship every time she makes a cup of tea). Annual usage about 5.5MW (5,500 KW). This is system lifetime since early October (as opposed to the financial figures above just since mid December). Total generation = 4.52MW. Of this generation the house/battery took 1.64MW and we exported 2.88MW to the grid. Our total consumption = 4.14MW using the 1.64MW from the solar and 2.5MW from the grid. The key figure is we've given more back to the grid than we've taken so it's nice to be carbon positive, at least for electricity. I expect to give about 2MW per year more back than we take. Obviously it's not out of the goodness of our own hearts as we get paid for it but still nice to do so. Some people might think the consumption from the grid is high but this is due to charging the battery from the grid overnight on a cheap rate. That's by far the most efficient way and saves us the most money. Plus obviously there are hours in the day when the sun isn't shining and sometimes entire days when it doesn't shine.
@@FlatToRentUKIt is wonderful to hear from someone who actually use solar and have data to back it up. I am considering using a 7kWp system with a 5kW battery, but I have to suspect a high probability that I won't be able to export any electricity to the grid due to constant change to FIT policy where I live. In this case, from your data, would it make solar worthwhile? There is also no on-peak / off-peak rates in my country, it's a constant rate throughout the day. So there's not much benefit in charging the battery from the grid at night. We use a Tier system where we get charged more per kWh the more we use, so there is still benefit in consuming less from the grid though.
@@vuhoanghuan It's a tricky decision as there's so many variables with obviously the big one being cost to install. I made the decision based on data from my solar installer which suggested a 7-8 year payback but once I looked into it myself that analysis was actually very bad. The areas it failed on were - - All calculations based on a flat rate of energy import - No strategy to change to a tariff with a cheap overnight rate (we have one called Economy 7 which is a third of the price between midnight and 7am) to charge the battery and run other appliances (dishwasher, washing machine) during those hours. - It used the lowest rates of export. If you don't move supplier most of our big ones will only pay 3p or 4p per KWh. We're getting 23p. So it's really about the tariffs and export rates you can get and you need to try and model these in a spreadsheet and if possible overlay generation stats from an installer. When Octopus Energy announced their Octopus Flux tariff (which we moved to in April) I modelled this to work out if we'd be better off. My conclusion was we'd pay a bit more for import but as we got paid more for export we'd need to average about 2.5KWh export per day to be better off. In June we're averaging 30 per day hence the great figures. From what you say it's a simpler calculation where you'd only charge the battery from excess solar. Perhaps the better decision for you would be more batteries whereas I've calculated another 5KW for me would take 12 years to payback so not worth it. It also depends on your climate, do you get year round sun? If you're very seasonal like the UK there won't be much excess solar to charge the battery for 3-4 months of the year minimising your savings. One definite piece of advice I'd give is to look for podcasts or TH-camrs discussing this in your country. There's several in the UK and their advice can be invaluable. Someone has hopefully done the analysis for you already! Best of luck.
@@FlatToRentUK Thank you very much for your super detailed reply! I live in the south of Vietnam so we get a lot of sun hours and basically it's just only one season, and the irradiance is also very high. Most people who installed solar in my country installed theirs back a few years ago when FIT rates were very high. Now, solar adoption is too prevalent so the grid is struggling to keep up with higher fluctuation so much that they have stopped all FIT already. The maths is quite different now since I will have to treat it as an almost off-grid system (rely more on storage, can still import but cannot export, cannot strategically import/export at different hours due to constant rates).
@@vuhoanghuan No problem at all. So I expect the key decision for you is the size of the system you install. If it's too big you won't be able to use the power or store it and you won't get paid for it. The ideal situation would be to generate enough to run your house and max the batteries which keep you going through the night until the sun comes up the next day. Or if you do need some grid power at least under your system it should be the cheapest rate as you're not using much. Tough to model that on a variable usage tariff, hopefully your spreadsheet skills are better than mine!
Decarbonizing the grid? How large is the carbon footprint of the mining and manufacturing of the solar panels and components? Does this get offset over the life of the panels? It's already being shown that electric cars have a greater negative carbon impact than traditional fossil fuel vehicles for this reason
We installed a Canadian based panels plant and it cost over 8000US$ and by calculation i found out that it will payback it's worth in less than 4 years and the warranty for panels is 25 years.
@@rack9458 19.4KW panels connected to 3 inverters, the inverters are connected to a cloud system, so the whole production data and everything is stored, you'd have to wait 1 year for accurate data and it turned out about 25000 yearly units(KW/h) of electricity, then just simply multiply that with the cost of each unit you power provider sells. Currently our power is going negative.
Well, I prefer nuclear and think renewable power like solar does more environmental harm than good, but i think solar is one of the few truly clean sources of energy.
@@officialspockhe amount of nuclear waste a reactor produces is miniscule to the power it produces. Other non renewable energy sources take way more physical space to store their fuel.
I don't know if they have gotten more expensive because in the state of New Jersey I think solar panels gotten cheaper there. The governement would even go as far as to install it for free and I've seen some of my neighbors already have solar panels on their houses. There are even solar panels on the electric grid and in businesses as well as at Rutgers. Which is probably why New Jersey produces the most solar panels and uses the most solar panels in the United States. However, my family and I never really got around having solar panels on our roof because it would mean we had to cut up the trees in our yard, which we do not want. I am open to a wind turbine on our property for wind energy.
Finland currently enjoys free energy. After years of investing in solar, wind and hydro, they have so much energy that they can't even give it away for free because there are no cables left to transport it. They even finished building a nuclear power plant that took 20 years but found that they didn't even need it.
It's a nice thought but there's three points of contentions I like to bring everyone's attention one just because of solar panel can get the electricity it doesn't mean it can store it you still need to buy a battery in order to use your electronics at your home second if the sun isn't out you're not going to get any electricity meaning you'll have to be in the dark or you'll have to get your power from an alternate source like gasoline and third it requires a lot of energy just power-ups earned devices cell phone or your tablet is nothing but a microwave or an oven would require a lot of solar panels and a very large battery to store all that energy
Another form of solar energy is the parabolic mirror water heater that reflects the sun's rays into a pole that heats ur water. Though it's only really viable in tropical countries
I know some people who paid about $15000 for solar panels they installed themselves in 2009 that technically still haven't produced enough power to cover their cost. However, a very big BUT in this equation is that the alternative was to pay over $50000 to build power lines to their off grid cabin they only visit in summer, plus whatever the electricity use and the monthly connection fee would have added up to. Off grid cabins, RVs and camper vans can save loads of money using solar even if technically the panels never produce enough kilowatt-hours to pay for themselves because all the other options are far more expensive and will never "pay for themselves" either. ROI is more useful metric for a home owner who is going to get smaller electric bills all year, but the real prize for many people is not having to worry that a falling tree or aging infrastructure will leave you without power. And yes, it is theoretically possible that freak weather will be cloudy for weeks and your panels can't power everything, but it is also possible that a storm leaves your city without utilities for weeks and if you have to expect that kind of weather to be a regular issue the problem is where you live, not how viable/affordable solar is.
I work in the construction industry designing (among other things) PV (photovoltaic, AKA: solar) power plants for campuses and “green” building designs, and I can give firsthand testimony that this video is conflating/selectively analyzing a tremendous amount of information. My firm gets visits from PV sales firms that talk exactly like this when they want us to specify their product, but when you go to actually make this happen for a client, you discover that words they use like “total cost” and “payback” are using statistics that in ALL cases require MASSIVE government subsidies AND the exploitation of cheap labor and cheap fossil fuels to harvest the raw materials. I’m a believer in PV, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s an awesome tech, so much so that I wrote a paper on the economic advantages of roll-to-roll processing in printed PV panel technology, but the current actual costs are not what are presented in this video. Sure, our local solar retailer may be able to get it for us for $25k on paper, with a government tax credit (that WE get to file) for the 33% that brings it down the $17k they advertise, but we usually get to front that money in the meantime. Also, where did the government get that money they are so kindly giving us out of concern for the environment? Our wallets. We are paying way more than advertised for solar tech. We might be occasionally paying for it with someone else’s money (e.g., government grants, exploitative labor practices outside of the USA, etc.), but it costs WAY more than seems to have been presented here. If we want a REAL discount on solar to where it’s actually affordable, we need to see if the local utility is giving grants for installation. THAT’S when it usually actually makes sense to do, because the utility is using our solar to shift demand during peak loads so they don’t have to build/operate more plant capacity, which costs tons of money. But the utilities that do this are few and far between, because it doesn’t usually make sense for them (or us). The long story short is that, cradle-to-grave, I’ve been asking for a single solar company to show me their product consumes less overall fossil fuel than the local natural gas plant (or whatever fossil fuel have you). 10 years in, and zero successes, except those that take special “exceptions” to their sourcing. Which is exactly what that sounds like. Solar still seems to consume about as much fossil fuel and other fossil-fuel-created resources to make the panel and the accessories/tech as it creates in energy during its life. Maybe one day we’ll be there, but that day is not today, and certainly not while China’s unfiltered coal-belching power plants still produce 95% of our gallium and selenium.
Its not only worth it but being worth it or not is not even relevant, but it is necessary to transition towards alternativa energy sources, being the solar pannels the most effective one
Given the growing use of solar panels, It is estimated that by 2050 the e-wastes generated by solar panel batteries will reach a massive number, that is, 6 million metric tons. Some countries and politicians insist on using nuclear power as It is a more sustainable and more stable supply of power than solar energy. As things stand, no solid solution is available to this e-waste, What can we do?.
The people alive today won't be alive when the solar panels start causing problems. Because they are demanding the government spend money they can't see or feel, they think there is no downside. They think they are speaking about solar, and suddenly solar panels appear on their homes and thus only good comes out. Kind of like how Russia profits off of asbestos now that the west has banned it.
What about maintenance cost? Gotta keep snow off the panels in the winter, and what if they break? They may have gotten cheaper, but they're still a major expense.
My panels are guaranteed for 25 years. It's recommended to clean them each year and fortunately my neighbour has a pressure washer with a perfect attachment for doing so. Cost of that is a bit of water and a bit of electricity which will be free as I'll clean them on a sunny day. Battery is guaranteed for 4,500 charge/discharge cycles so once a day for about 12 years. Snow is rarely a problem here and if it's gloomy enough for the snow to lay you won't be generating much power. In terms of the overall expense I put a much longer post up a little while ago. Although that's just my experience.
Coming from a snowy area, the panels are standing at an angle that snow slides off it. It’s the same angle as your roof mostly. We never had problems with it and didn’t need to do anything (just like how you don’t have to do anything for your roof unless it’s flat)
I feel like this video left out the role that the space program and the satellite industry played. The video mentioned that in the 1950's solar panels cost around $300 per watt and then jumped 50 years into the future talking about subsidy schemes that cost 4 times retail energy costs. If the panels still cost $300 per watt in 2000, the subsidy would have to be more like 150 times retail costs to make them attractive to homeowners, at which point they would never be sustainable, even on the short term. The market that brought the cost down from $300 per watt to tens of dollars per watt, was the space industry. $300 a watt may be expensive, but if it is your only real option, which it is, if you are NASA or a communications satellite manufacturer. This market is (was) relatively small. But it was the original market for solar panels that allowed for continued research and development and economies of scale to the cost down to a point where earth based economically viable solar power could take hold. By the 1970's the prices were around $70 a watt. Today they are less than a dollar per watt (for utility scale projects at least.)
In Malaysia, for solar system of 4.5 kwp, it costs around 4500 usd. Well it’s certainly cheaper than before, but for it to get mainstream, it has to go down further.
Then, when the sun goes behind a cloud or at night, your house goes completely dark and without power. Obviously, this doesn't happen, you need a continuous connection to the grid and/or backup batteries, each with their own costs (upfront and monthly). Solar IS cheap per watt, but the reliability issue adds considerable cost to that $/watt price.
it's good and all, but, here in indonesia, even we got sunshine all year round, solar for privateer isn't the best option between daily needs and other bills
Solar Panels and Wind Turbine power will only work in certain geographical locations. Until power storage systems can become equal in energy density and as reliable as Nuclear Power, Hydro Dams, Gas, Oil, and Coal. Relying on electric generating systems other than the ones stated above is a "Pipe Dream".
If you ignore the mining, the huge land mass it use up (and subsequent impact to local ecology) and inefficiency of energy production (places that can generate most solar arent necessarily in high demand of energy), then sure.
@@fuewabutz4784sometimes people criticizing without providing alternative suggestions which is didn't help making any better, solar panels made of glass /silica most abandoned resources on the planet, most used element for construction, the amount we use for panel won't comparable what construction industrial used , yet we still building
@@cobaltblue2756a useful alternate solution would be nice if we all collectively considered and understood the alternative to private enterprise owning and being responsible of mineral resource extraction, fossil fuels, farming, construction, manufacturing, etc. Because I rarely see anyone focus on that when they point out in rage that silica, copper, lithium and cobalt mining is no better but in fact worse than oil and coal, or gas, iron, lead, blood sweat and tears of working women and children.
To anyone who reads this and hasn't got a quote for their current electric bill it is almost 10% more over the lifespan of the solar panel cost than what the actual electricity is going to be
These panels wear out. Additionally, assuming you have full exposure to the sun, you'd be lucky to break even in 10 years. Lastly, any economist will tell you that they haven't perfected this technology enough. We're about 10 years away from solar being practical.
Did you see that gigantic solar farm in Western Nebraska that was completely destroyed by a hailstorm last week? Now one would think that if you’re building a solar farm on the hail prone High Plains that you would make the solar panels more resistant to hail damage. Evidently common sense like that escaped the builders of that solar farm! That hailstorm turned into an extremely expensive mistake! If you’re going to encourage people in hail prone areas of the world to install more solar power, then you better make those panels much more resistant to hail damage, or it’s a completely superfluous endeavor.
I'm sorry who lives in a house 12 years. I'm 55 yrs old and have lived in 12 states and 32 towns and currently on my 5th year at my home. This is a culture of charging and charging. Everyone has 7 app for movies all costing a few hundreds a year, cars that after 10 years are subjected to people thinking you're poor. Yep they come to my house weekly in the summer and say we will put solar panels on your house and you will pay us $169 a month for 10 years, let me see the highest power bill i have with all brand new electric appliances is $89. There has been one outage in 5 yrs caused by snow on lines, yes it was a panic, until i went to my mancave and powered everything on battery backup.
Well, in the 90s they still where mostly a novelty toy. Now almost every proper tile roof in the rural areas, where people own their houses have solar on them. Because even if they don't pay for themselves they do a very good job of complementing emergency generators after flooding. But they also usually pay for themselves in around ~10-15 ish years. A diesel generator does not do that ever.
Seems there's a lot of downsides ignored or omitted in this video. Duck curve where there's more energy surplus in the day, while they become leeches at night, the problem with current energy storage where lithium is worse than oil since it has to be mined by slaves, a solar panel connected in a grid does not make the house more resilient to power outages because they're programmed to shut off if the grid goes down for safety, incentives taking money away for more important projects like upgrading the grid, etc.
It's not that simple.. the problem with solar and wind power is that they availability factor is not 100% (solar only works in the afternoon when the sun shines and wind has its ups and downs as well) and thus cannot relaibly supply the base load all day long.. maybe if combined with batteries it will but still not 100% and we still need other resources to maintain the stability of the grid like thermal or hydro (which has greater availability factor).. thats why i think what matters is balance between availability, economic efficiency, and environmental impacts
Has anyone noticed that the narrator, Jack Cutmore-Scott, sounded a bit nasal in this video? He sounded very different from the voice-over on the last segment linking to other videos. I wonder what happened.
Yet nobody ever talks about the issues residential homes with solar installations feeding solar power back into the grid pose. It’s fine as long as your generated power stays in your home, but having thousands of inverters feed alternating current back into the grid is causing the 50/60HZ sine wave to degrade into noise
It used to be overly subsidized, but subsidies have drastically dereased ever since. As for nuclear, unfortunately, it is one of the most expenive energies right now. Yes it's clean and safe, and yes we will certainly need it in the future. But no, it is not cheap.
@@texanplayer7651 When considering everything its not that expensive. You got a lot of power there, wind, Solar cant compete. Perhaps we are not ready for it yet.
What is the overall impact on the environment, also what is the energy cost, of production and disposal of solar panels? Remember that they do short-out, eventually, and need to be discarded and replaced. Sometimes I feel that a solar panel that bypasses electricity entirely would be more efficient, like something that uses lenses, water, and steam.
@@GuitarGuy650 I'm not claiming anything, let alone that they compare. I'm asking for information. Remember that purely electric cars require HUGE resources to build and have TOXIC chemicals when they get disposed of. They are a LONG way from being environmentally "friendly". I wanna know how well Solar power really fares.
The very fact that solar is so cheap now is why private investors are steering clear of it - because the profit margins are not attractive enough But we'll pay dearly for their inaction, or for the grid electricity of solar and wind at the pegged $/kWh for oil, gas and coal.
Wild that you skipped the most damning parts of solar. Like the coal silica needed to make the panels. The child labor in the mining. Or the 10 year lifespan of the panels. Or the battery required and the child labor in the mining. I'm a fan of solar but I'm a honest about the downside.
Cut $$ 5000 off that price if you don’t hook to the grid you’re better off just to do a self supporting system it’s cheaper and it will pay you back faster
it would cost too much to upgrade my 1200sqft home to solar power. I barely spend $2-3 a day on electricity. There are cons to having solar energy that is often overlooked. For example I'm a traffic engineer and my city installed solar panels for school flashers that kept failing to keep their energy. After a year of constant failures we ended up removing the solar panels in favor of grid power.
The math just doesn't make sense for a lot of people when you factor in risk of failure and upkeep. If the answer is it "might" pay for itself then it's not cost effective enough yet. I think utility suppliers should be be the big investors still. They should do us on lease agreements with homeowners too.
solar cell itself isn't, the problem lies within the storage, also since trying to make public solar power grid isn't efficient, less companies want to research solar cell compare to other energy source
It is only viable if the company rent it, while the home owner pay it with the electricity that it generate.. but most people don't have that large capital, for the panels.. let alone the whole electrical system such as battery.. The ROI is not good since on average people need 9-10 years on real life while on paper 7-8..
Want to know what part you can play in the fight for our planet? Check out our Earth School Action Guide: ed.ted.com/earth-school/action_guide No matter your level of influence, you have a part to play.
Very disappointed in the video not pointing out the biggest problem with solar: it is niche and also requires user management. Batteries would solve solar's inconsistency; but batteries are a huge problem themselves.
Just for you guys to know. I searched up solar systems lately and found an offer for around 10,500 € for a 8.000kWh system + 5kWh battery system. So that's even cheaper :)
@@longdang2681 your brain is niche. Solar energy powers everything alive, and every human endeavor. People like you are just so far packed down into your own deranged reality that you are squeezing facts out of the bubble to support your delusions.
Please. Can you make a video on biodegradable plastic 🙏🙏🙏 it's an emergency
Please. Can you make a video on biodegradable plastic 🙏🙏🙏 it's an emergency
Over the past few years and during a few more, the Netherlands is actually phasing out the payment for excess generated power. Although annoying for the consumers that want to buy solar panels, this is due to our power grid being completely filled up. Additionally, I think it serves to stimulate research into battery technology, which should hopefully follow the same trend as solar panels.
If they could export energy i think thats another use
@@josefinodarcybalasoto6526 That is what they should do but sounds like someone is getting greedy.
I'm glad you mentioned this, I think people fail to think about the fact that the grid doesn't need the excess energy depending on the demand. The peak point at which solar produces energy is also the time where the energy is least needed, the middle of the day. Batteries are the future for this issue, if we can store excess energy efficiently we can start putting all the extra energy to use.
@@scottserage9022 See that;s where you are kinda wrong. If we continue to move towards EVs what we need is an outlet in every parking spot even if it's just a normal 2300W standard outlet. Most of the time cars stand in a parking lot so why not slow charge them while they do so every then when we are at work? It's not that expensive to mount 2300 W outlets and each car comes with a slow charger from the manufacturer so it should be pretty easy to implement. Then you can use that excess energy to fill up the cars every day and it will also not cost the companies too much money as the electricity will be cheap. Only start charging between 10 and 18 o'clock for example so you use solar energy for that. It can easily be implemented with the only condition for people to want it. Force the company to slowly add outlets as the EV adoption goes on and by the time gas powered vehicles will become rare (about 2050) we can have both new battery technology and a way to power our vehicles for cheap.
@@r3dhorseif you export the energy it would be lost in transmission, its not greedy, its efficient
Solar power is the only widely available energy source that doesn't require spinning a turbine
= it's passive
And it's even cooler when hooked with energy storage.
A few months ago scientists proved that wind turbines causes soil erosion
Just an exploding battery
Great!
And so what?
True true
I used to work in sales for a company that offers a solar leasing business model.
They basically made solar affordable by requiring nothing upfront paid, and only charging payments once the panels are installed. The power bill you normally pay for is cancelled out by the generated solar energy, and you use that money to pay for your panels. In about 5 years’ time you would be enjoying free power.
I thought that was genius. But if only people understood it and let the numbers talked, it would have been an easy job.
I have a 3200+ sqft home. We spend just over $1500/yr for electricity. The ROI doesn't work for us.
@@CharleneCTX yeah fair enough I do get where you’re coming from especially when your roof simply can’t fit enough panels to power the entire house.
I still think it will be pretty good to have your power bills permanently cut down in a few years, though.
@@CharleneCTX yah, for a house that big, that's the kind of cash a person can blow on a pair of sneakers, not much at all. i guess since you took the time to comment you're already going nuts for efficiency to get it that low. maybe solar water heating would be a small extra.
@@CharleneCTXit wouldn’t have anything to do with the house size. Just latitude.
It is a easy job I’ve made 12gs in 2 weeks
I live in a country located on the equator if only people knew the amount of energy our sun gives we'd never run out of power
Infinite, power!
Same
Except at night or the rainy season.
UNLIMITED POOWER!!
@@bowez9 since when are solar panel inoperable during rain? Maybe a bit less, but there's still light
I'm from Germany and you sound so optimistic in your video about the EEG as well as about the renewable infrastructure here. The truth is, that of course there are some progresses, but the bureaucracy and incompetent politicians make it less efficient as it could be. Also it's not so easy to install these panels and to flow the electric current into the power grid
Your country have some incompetent politicians? I thought it only happens in 3rd world countries lol
At the same time it goes to show that germany NEEDS to do everything it can, in spite of being such a small country, because other, bigger countries may follow. So it's right that we try.
@@interferenzbrille_2542only problem being that corruption and lobbyism is so high in our country that it takes well over 50 years for change to happen.
Currently we’re running ourselves into the ground and people living here are unhappier than in a long time. I’m glad when I can move away from this country despite originally loving it
I have work for ESS dev in korea.
Our conservative politician has struggle to bury even solar power system
It sucks how many governments are so concerned with making their political rivals look bad, the jobs they were elected to do are on the back burner.
Research into battery and power storage technologies should also be ramped up to further optimize this energy source. Right now power storage is a bigger challenge for micro users than generating.
For everyone wondering about recycling the panels, France is opening the world's biggest recycling center for solar panels. More will come. The industry is always growing and adapting. Solar is the future!
no storage = no green future with renewebles
What happens at night...?
@@christophercarson6634
Batteries, you know the same things in electric cars? Seriously?
@@TheAmericanAmerican You couldn't have picked a more carbon releasing battery than electric batteries xD. The best batteries are hydroelectric batteries, but they come with significant inefficiencies. The best option is still no battery, which you don't need if you have a nuclear power plant running 24/7.
@@8is which have their own downsides and are expensive as duck, which we could discuss here for hours, but it doesn't matter anyway, nothing not planned right now will help against climate change in the next 20 years, so the discussion is pointless anyway
I work as Electrical Engineer in a distribution company and one of our team's scope is evaluating the electricity produced by the Solar Panels(from residentials, commercials, or industrial) if they meet the ideal parameters before they can send the produced electricity to the grid. The electricity produced should meet those said required parameters because if they dont, they might disrupt or lower the efficiency of the entire grid or circuit. Usually this process can take up to 6 months.
That would be something done at the manufacturing level. Consumers would just buy a “grid compatible” inverter.
Solar powers problem isnt solar panel cost or its effeciency, the real problem is storing solar power and the cost and ineffeciency of batterys.
Amen Bro
we could make electric cars to only charge when there is excess solar energy. After all they already have a battery.
@@krux02 We already do that. You can buy EVs that talk to the chargers that talk to the energy supplier. They charge when the supply is greenest. Most people have cheap night rates for EV charging and if this takes your import outside this they'll only charge you the night rate.
For an individual house, that's true. We've had a lot of hot, sunny days recently and we can generate about 50KWh on those days. The house only uses about 15 in a day and some of that comes from the grid overnight and charging the battery. So out of the 50 we generate we directly use about 8 and 42 goes back to the grid. Which is inefficient (except it generates me a lot of money) but that power will go to run several other houses which then don't need power generated by burning fossil fuels.
Perhaps in a few decades there will be so much solar on our houses that on sunny days we can run the entire country on it and there will be so much excess we won't know where to put it. But that's going to take a long time to reach there.
@@FlatToRentUK Assuming that full solar power, lithium batteries have a capacity of 250 watts per kilogram (near the physical limit), with current reserves we have 4 Terawatt hours of total capacity or 15 minutes on a planetary scale, all this without counting that there are days cloudy, with rain or that the heat reduces the efficiency of the panel... I'm sorry but this is not a solution :(
The lowest electric bill we had with solar was $19.10 because that is the processing fee for the electric company. Before the solar panels out electric bill was over $150 to $300 depending on the weather and seasons
In cost analysis, you should take into account the cost of panels and inverters. You should also take into account that, in 10 years, you will need a new inverter and repair your panels. Most likely, it's all more expensive.
@@kg0173 no not really 🤔…. In the long run renewable energy is much cheaper …
@@sopfhie748 Impossible, somebody else have to pay then. Perhaps cheap chinese workers who produce them. Investing in nuclear energy would be cheaper in long run and we are talking about million times more effective energy source..
Solar panels have transformed villages in Africa, and electrified remote area long forgotten by governments
Awesome! Solarize Africa!!!
Here in Portugal all new houses are pretty much obligated to have solar panels. The buying costs of panels Vs electricity costs make it so it's a no brainer to have solar panels.
Is it expensive compared to 30 years ago? No.
Is it expensive for the average people in my country? Absolutely yes and it will be for years.
There's a lot of claims solar and wind are the cheapest power. Could you explain why that's not the case for your country?
Hey please don't use , Solar, Let me do the Solar Savings,
@@vanivanov9571 $17k-20k for your house is pretty expensive. Even with the 60% decrease thats still $8k and you won't see your investment return for 7 years. Thats a pretty big hit on anyone's bank account below the upper class
@@vanivanov9571 The EU had a lot of funds to widen solar coverage for the regular people (just look at Germany with their 85-90% financed individual projects). Well, that was the plan. Our great government interpreted this as "we have a lot of free money so let's build a lot of solar plants and sell the electricity to the people anyway".
There you have it.
We are at a point where most people can't buy meat whenever they want. Solar is their the last concern sadly.
Exactly. The only affordable ones are those units for apartment balconies, that can generate 300w tops and are about an meter wide.
I was surprised seeing those for 300€ at lidl, but it’s too bad I can’t afford an apartment with balcony. It would definitely have been cool to charge small-medium appliances with it
I’ve always wondered that. Especially considering I live in a country with seasons, where in winter there’s nearly no sunshine
Great video! On a more macro scale, it is notable that both residential and commercial solar can do a great deal to relieve stress on the regional electrical grid.
Because every watt generated and consumed locally is a watt that does not stress a distant power plant nor the grid to transmit that watt. And the grid can become a critical bottleneck for global electrification efforts. Residential and commercial solar "unloads" the grid and starts building a distributed power architecture. Distributed systems are naturally highly resilient by their very nature versus centralized monolithic ones that largely exist today.
This situation is most evident during heat waves when the regional grid experiences some of its most extreme loads from all the A/C running at the same time. However, heatwaves always come with abundant sunshine which the residential and commercial solar panels will absolutely soak up.
So a solar home not only removes its own load on the grid but likely also partially powers their neighbor's home loads and A/C. Same with commercial buildings: malls, big box stores, etc. which have huge A/C loads due to their massive interior size. When thousands of such installs are running, it will really start having a benefit to the local grid during heatwaves -- which will become more frequent and more intense with climate change.
Solar is the only major power source that blends almost seamlessly into the urban landscape with noiseless and pollution free power due to its naturally thin design and all solid state electronics.
$17,000 in 2022!!! In 2020 I got a 7.9Kw system for $6,500 AUD. That’s like $4,300 USD for a system than can run your home… and our system has paid itself off in 3 years here in Australia.
As optimistic as this video is, you are leaving out many of the other drawbacks. In the US alone, utility companies are price gouging 'prosumers' for the audacity of producing their own power, effectively negating the price savings solar is supposed to provide in large regions of the nation. Not to mention that without a house battery system, most solar goes to the grid first, not the home, meaning brownouts and blackouts still leave those homes in the dark. Especially due to the exorbitant costs of home battery systems and their associated energy management systems.
We don't use the US as an example of human progress anymore. The rest of the world seems to be advancing just fine.
In what way are utility companies able to 'price gouge' those with solar?
Usually solar is configured to output excess energy to the grid, not all of it. It is not illegal to generate your own electricity, so this may be a contractual issue.
That's a corruption problem
@@mso1ps4it many places in the US, it IS illegal to export your own electricity to the grid, Electrical service is required to be certified for habitation, and extra connection fees are charged to those who don’t use enough electricity.
Solar post are becoming popular in my country and we got one last month and it was great. It light up the side walk at night. People might think it's not a huge deal but it kinda is.
I love these animations, so imaginative! : )
my gawd, the illustrations and animation in this video is extraordinary! Love it
I had solar panels installed last December. No regrets!
I really do hope everyone in the world will have solar panel roofs.
Solar power is only worth doing along the equator or in countries where it is almost always sunny.
@@robertwilson2007 Not true, We will still have solar energy at night while people are using it, it will just drain them.
Maybe there will be a meter that shows you how much energy you have left?
Probably have to get a generator to store power in and not just have all the solar power in the solar roofs.
Are you thinking that it will only work when there's always sun out and power off when there's no sun?
@@TheUnknownD Well if this solar and wind stuff was so great why is Germany cutting back on those ambitions. Could it be they are not all that great at providing a energy at a reasonable price and environmental cost?
@@robertwilson2007 One word.
Money.
Also, They probably don't have enough Resources yet.
A lot of people sadly don't want to benifit society for the better.
@@TheUnknownD When solar panels and batteries become efficient enough and powerful enough. People will start buying them until that time comes ..... NO DICE.
Well in Lebanon, due to power outage (blamed on the corrupt state which didn't invest in the country infrastructure) and skyrocketing prices per KW by gangs controlled private power generators, householders are obligated to invest in solar energy as a form of "rebel" against all the corruption I mentioned earlier. And it seems like a good bet.
Yup, solar ends up being cheaper than the monthly generator fees! I'm sure some of those politicians (gebran bassil akid) feel proud that they encouraged the country to get solar hahah
For most people, it's not worth it. For example, in Romania, I pay about $25 a month for electricity. That's just $3000 over 10 years. To break even on a $20k solar panel system would take what, 70 years?
I recently got a quote. I was told that I can save -$20 by installing roof-top solar. It estimated that my monthly electricity bill will be reduced from $70 to $90. After the quote, I got endless emails and phones calls everyday asking me why don't I want to take advantage of this saving.
The efficiency is a big punch. The best ones are only about 20%. Governments should invest more on research to pump that number
However, Solar lease is something I will look closer at
It's technically better than 20%, but it's REALLY expensive, like NASA expensive. For personal use, it's better to use metrics such as energy/$
Tech ingredients did a good video explaining that placing mirrors on either side of a panel that orient with sun movement can vastly increase output without drastically increasing price only slightly increasing complexity. Don’t see any commercial options but not bad diy prospects.
Solar is awesome and we should keep building more!
Hey can you do a video about:how do chickens lay eggs and how do humans get sick by just showering in the rain. Btw im from philippines and your animations are more understandable (idk if thats a word) than going to school
I'm my country (Nicaragua) the government charges you an extra tax plus if you have the audacity to install solar panels plus making the permit process an absolute nightmare because you are not longer paying them
Nicaragua is an ally of Russia? So, yea then i understand that your politicians do the opposite of what they're supposed to do.
I started small by charging my phone with solar power by rigging up a 20v solar cell with a buck converter and a power bank.....kind of feels satisfying seeing it charge up during the day....cost about $50 to rig everything
The electricity cost for a phone is about $2 per year, so in 25 years your gonna be making anprofit 😂
@@wipeoutxl21 weird, negative outlook you have there. if you spend $50 on a ballgame or concert, how do you recoup that and make a profit? you don't- it's money you spent because you wanted to. but according to you, if you spend that $50 on a solar charger instead of a ballgame or concert, you're silly because you're not going to ~make~ money on your purchase.
and there's also the fact that, if the commentor can charge their phone during a power outage, they could make a call that save s thousands of dollars or even lives.
plus, solar power is not a thing because it makes or saves you money. it helps save your grandkids from living and dying in an apocalyptic hellscape- again, saving lives.
@@nonyabizness.original well said, esspecially the last sentence, we're just having drought here around munich again, the grass is all dead, you just have to rub your foot against the ground and it's all gone and exposes whatever the definition of totally dried ground is
@@nonyabizness.original I really wish these videos would show the truth behind renewable energy. Solar is good because the sun hitting the photocells doesn't create co2 but mining lithium for batteries and silicone is so much worse than what these videos show. Also destroying eco systems to create the fields needed too
@@nonyabizness.original if you applied that logic to energy then sure why not, lets pay $50 a gallon for gas, or have $3000/month electricity bills.
Just building solars on our house and I learn that to have autonomy from the grid is only possible if you setup dedicated home cabeling (you define which devices/plugs will failover) or using a battery (IMO not worth yet as too much expensive)
I installed solar panels last year and from my experience so far they are 100% worth it. Obviously that's decided based on the numbers. So if you like numbers, here they are. If you don't, look away now.
I live in the East of the UK. I have a roof that's got a perfect pitch but is a bit too east facing to be optimal. Imagine a line running through a clock from about 1:00 to 7:00. So we do great in the morning but not as well in the afternoon. Our system is big for domestic installs, 8.9KW with 6KW inverter and 5KW battery. We paid £12.5k for it. Given that cost the average saving we need to achieve per day to get our money back in certain timeframes is -
- 5 year payback = £6.84
- 6 year payback = £5.70
- 7 year payback = £4.89
It was installed in October but took a couple of months to get our tariff changed and export setup so I started collecting data in mid December. The flaw is I don't have a full year of data that I could then extrapolate across several years but the picture is becoming much clearer as we move into summer.
For each month (or half month for December) here's the average daily saving for that month and the overall average at the end of that month. You'll see as each month improves it is dragging up the overall average -
December = £1.94 £1.94
January = £2.71 £2.45
February = £4.12 £3.07
March = £4.70 £3.55
April* = £8.13 £4.56
May = £8.97 £5.38
June (to the 23rd) = £10.67 £5.99
*In April we moved tariff to one that pays more for export and we export a lot given the size of our system. The huge improvement in April from March is partly down to this and partly down to more sun.
The key conclusion from this is that we passed the 7 year payback in May and passed the 6 year payback on 13th June. Across July, August and September I expect to comfortably pass the 5 year payback average before falling back across October and November before I get a full year of data in mid December. This will vary though as energy prices fall as they're expected to do. Given the commonly quoted payback times of 8/10/12 years you can see why I'm delighted with the system.
I have done a fair bit of tweaking of various things to maximise the savings. Changing tariffs, having the battery charge at certain times, dishwasher runs at night, etc.. One thing I don't do is force discharge the battery though. Hope that's helpful.
Just realised I should also put some generation stats up in case there's interest. We use a lot of electricity (big house, several children, wife that boils enough water to float a battleship every time she makes a cup of tea). Annual usage about 5.5MW (5,500 KW). This is system lifetime since early October (as opposed to the financial figures above just since mid December).
Total generation = 4.52MW.
Of this generation the house/battery took 1.64MW and we exported 2.88MW to the grid.
Our total consumption = 4.14MW using the 1.64MW from the solar and 2.5MW from the grid.
The key figure is we've given more back to the grid than we've taken so it's nice to be carbon positive, at least for electricity. I expect to give about 2MW per year more back than we take. Obviously it's not out of the goodness of our own hearts as we get paid for it but still nice to do so.
Some people might think the consumption from the grid is high but this is due to charging the battery from the grid overnight on a cheap rate. That's by far the most efficient way and saves us the most money. Plus obviously there are hours in the day when the sun isn't shining and sometimes entire days when it doesn't shine.
@@FlatToRentUKIt is wonderful to hear from someone who actually use solar and have data to back it up. I am considering using a 7kWp system with a 5kW battery, but I have to suspect a high probability that I won't be able to export any electricity to the grid due to constant change to FIT policy where I live. In this case, from your data, would it make solar worthwhile?
There is also no on-peak / off-peak rates in my country, it's a constant rate throughout the day. So there's not much benefit in charging the battery from the grid at night. We use a Tier system where we get charged more per kWh the more we use, so there is still benefit in consuming less from the grid though.
@@vuhoanghuan It's a tricky decision as there's so many variables with obviously the big one being cost to install. I made the decision based on data from my solar installer which suggested a 7-8 year payback but once I looked into it myself that analysis was actually very bad. The areas it failed on were -
- All calculations based on a flat rate of energy import
- No strategy to change to a tariff with a cheap overnight rate (we have one called Economy 7 which is a third of the price between midnight and 7am) to charge the battery and run other appliances (dishwasher, washing machine) during those hours.
- It used the lowest rates of export. If you don't move supplier most of our big ones will only pay 3p or 4p per KWh. We're getting 23p.
So it's really about the tariffs and export rates you can get and you need to try and model these in a spreadsheet and if possible overlay generation stats from an installer. When Octopus Energy announced their Octopus Flux tariff (which we moved to in April) I modelled this to work out if we'd be better off. My conclusion was we'd pay a bit more for import but as we got paid more for export we'd need to average about 2.5KWh export per day to be better off. In June we're averaging 30 per day hence the great figures.
From what you say it's a simpler calculation where you'd only charge the battery from excess solar. Perhaps the better decision for you would be more batteries whereas I've calculated another 5KW for me would take 12 years to payback so not worth it. It also depends on your climate, do you get year round sun? If you're very seasonal like the UK there won't be much excess solar to charge the battery for 3-4 months of the year minimising your savings.
One definite piece of advice I'd give is to look for podcasts or TH-camrs discussing this in your country. There's several in the UK and their advice can be invaluable. Someone has hopefully done the analysis for you already! Best of luck.
@@FlatToRentUK Thank you very much for your super detailed reply! I live in the south of Vietnam so we get a lot of sun hours and basically it's just only one season, and the irradiance is also very high. Most people who installed solar in my country installed theirs back a few years ago when FIT rates were very high. Now, solar adoption is too prevalent so the grid is struggling to keep up with higher fluctuation so much that they have stopped all FIT already. The maths is quite different now since I will have to treat it as an almost off-grid system (rely more on storage, can still import but cannot export, cannot strategically import/export at different hours due to constant rates).
@@vuhoanghuan No problem at all. So I expect the key decision for you is the size of the system you install. If it's too big you won't be able to use the power or store it and you won't get paid for it. The ideal situation would be to generate enough to run your house and max the batteries which keep you going through the night until the sun comes up the next day. Or if you do need some grid power at least under your system it should be the cheapest rate as you're not using much. Tough to model that on a variable usage tariff, hopefully your spreadsheet skills are better than mine!
Decarbonizing the grid? How large is the carbon footprint of the mining and manufacturing of the solar panels and components? Does this get offset over the life of the panels? It's already being shown that electric cars have a greater negative carbon impact than traditional fossil fuel vehicles for this reason
More residential solar panels would be great to have in Texas especially considering frequent energy outages.
We installed a Canadian based panels plant and it cost over 8000US$ and by calculation i found out that it will payback it's worth in less than 4 years and the warranty for panels is 25 years.
Please share your calculations. How many KW is your panel?
@@rack9458 19.4KW panels connected to 3 inverters, the inverters are connected to a cloud system, so the whole production data and everything is stored, you'd have to wait 1 year for accurate data and it turned out about 25000 yearly units(KW/h) of electricity, then just simply multiply that with the cost of each unit you power provider sells. Currently our power is going negative.
Well, I prefer nuclear and think renewable power like solar does more environmental harm than good, but i think solar is one of the few truly clean sources of energy.
Agree, and lets put the nuclear waste in your backyard while we're at it
@@officialspockhe amount of nuclear waste a reactor produces is miniscule to the power it produces. Other non renewable energy sources take way more physical space to store their fuel.
@@mustangcody sure, lets put the miniscule radioactive waste in your backyard, not a problem at all
@@officialspock you can dump it in my backyard if it means not clearing forests for solar fields. I'll take one for the team and help mother nature
@@HIFLY01 tell me you don't know what radioactive means without telling me you don't know what radioactive means
I don't know if they have gotten more expensive because in the state of New Jersey I think solar panels gotten cheaper there. The governement would even go as far as to install it for free and I've seen some of my neighbors already have solar panels on their houses. There are even solar panels on the electric grid and in businesses as well as at Rutgers. Which is probably why New Jersey produces the most solar panels and uses the most solar panels in the United States. However, my family and I never really got around having solar panels on our roof because it would mean we had to cut up the trees in our yard, which we do not want. I am open to a wind turbine on our property for wind energy.
Finland currently enjoys free energy. After years of investing in solar, wind and hydro, they have so much energy that they can't even give it away for free because there are no cables left to transport it. They even finished building a nuclear power plant that took 20 years but found that they didn't even need it.
Plus you have a really hot Prime Minister....
@@FlatToRentUK Not anymore. She was voted out.
@@SnoopyDoofie Plus you have a really hot ex-Prime Minister...
It's a nice thought but there's three points of contentions I like to bring everyone's attention one just because of solar panel can get the electricity it doesn't mean it can store it you still need to buy a battery in order to use your electronics at your home second if the sun isn't out you're not going to get any electricity meaning you'll have to be in the dark or you'll have to get your power from an alternate source like gasoline and third it requires a lot of energy just power-ups earned devices cell phone or your tablet is nothing but a microwave or an oven would require a lot of solar panels and a very large battery to store all that energy
As encouraging as this is, there are other factors at play to keep solar from being everywhere. The current housing market being one...
Great video. We'd like a sequel discussing how to properly disuse, or if possible, recycle a panel once it runs it's course
Another form of solar energy is the parabolic mirror water heater that reflects the sun's rays into a pole that heats ur water. Though it's only really viable in tropical countries
I know some people who paid about $15000 for solar panels they installed themselves in 2009 that technically still haven't produced enough power to cover their cost. However, a very big BUT in this equation is that the alternative was to pay over $50000 to build power lines to their off grid cabin they only visit in summer, plus whatever the electricity use and the monthly connection fee would have added up to.
Off grid cabins, RVs and camper vans can save loads of money using solar even if technically the panels never produce enough kilowatt-hours to pay for themselves because all the other options are far more expensive and will never "pay for themselves" either. ROI is more useful metric for a home owner who is going to get smaller electric bills all year, but the real prize for many people is not having to worry that a falling tree or aging infrastructure will leave you without power.
And yes, it is theoretically possible that freak weather will be cloudy for weeks and your panels can't power everything, but it is also possible that a storm leaves your city without utilities for weeks and if you have to expect that kind of weather to be a regular issue the problem is where you live, not how viable/affordable solar is.
I work in the construction industry designing (among other things) PV (photovoltaic, AKA: solar) power plants for campuses and “green” building designs, and I can give firsthand testimony that this video is conflating/selectively analyzing a tremendous amount of information. My firm gets visits from PV sales firms that talk exactly like this when they want us to specify their product, but when you go to actually make this happen for a client, you discover that words they use like “total cost” and “payback” are using statistics that in ALL cases require MASSIVE government subsidies AND the exploitation of cheap labor and cheap fossil fuels to harvest the raw materials. I’m a believer in PV, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s an awesome tech, so much so that I wrote a paper on the economic advantages of roll-to-roll processing in printed PV panel technology, but the current actual costs are not what are presented in this video. Sure, our local solar retailer may be able to get it for us for $25k on paper, with a government tax credit (that WE get to file) for the 33% that brings it down the $17k they advertise, but we usually get to front that money in the meantime. Also, where did the government get that money they are so kindly giving us out of concern for the environment? Our wallets. We are paying way more than advertised for solar tech. We might be occasionally paying for it with someone else’s money (e.g., government grants, exploitative labor practices outside of the USA, etc.), but it costs WAY more than seems to have been presented here.
If we want a REAL discount on solar to where it’s actually affordable, we need to see if the local utility is giving grants for installation. THAT’S when it usually actually makes sense to do, because the utility is using our solar to shift demand during peak loads so they don’t have to build/operate more plant capacity, which costs tons of money. But the utilities that do this are few and far between, because it doesn’t usually make sense for them (or us).
The long story short is that, cradle-to-grave, I’ve been asking for a single solar company to show me their product consumes less overall fossil fuel than the local natural gas plant (or whatever fossil fuel have you). 10 years in, and zero successes, except those that take special “exceptions” to their sourcing. Which is exactly what that sounds like. Solar still seems to consume about as much fossil fuel and other fossil-fuel-created resources to make the panel and the accessories/tech as it creates in energy during its life. Maybe one day we’ll be there, but that day is not today, and certainly not while China’s unfiltered coal-belching power plants still produce 95% of our gallium and selenium.
Thanks for your analysis, but few people would believe you with all the Greenie propaganda being shoved at us about ruinables.
Great video.
Its not only worth it but being worth it or not is not even relevant, but it is necessary to transition towards alternativa energy sources, being the solar pannels the most effective one
Given the growing use of solar panels, It is estimated that by 2050 the e-wastes generated by solar panel batteries will reach a massive number, that is, 6 million metric tons. Some countries and politicians insist on using nuclear power as It is a more sustainable and more stable supply of power than solar energy. As things stand, no solid solution is available to this e-waste, What can we do?.
The people alive today won't be alive when the solar panels start causing problems. Because they are demanding the government spend money they can't see or feel, they think there is no downside. They think they are speaking about solar, and suddenly solar panels appear on their homes and thus only good comes out. Kind of like how Russia profits off of asbestos now that the west has banned it.
What about maintenance cost? Gotta keep snow off the panels in the winter, and what if they break? They may have gotten cheaper, but they're still a major expense.
My panels are guaranteed for 25 years. It's recommended to clean them each year and fortunately my neighbour has a pressure washer with a perfect attachment for doing so. Cost of that is a bit of water and a bit of electricity which will be free as I'll clean them on a sunny day. Battery is guaranteed for 4,500 charge/discharge cycles so once a day for about 12 years. Snow is rarely a problem here and if it's gloomy enough for the snow to lay you won't be generating much power. In terms of the overall expense I put a much longer post up a little while ago. Although that's just my experience.
Coming from a snowy area, the panels are standing at an angle that snow slides off it. It’s the same angle as your roof mostly. We never had problems with it and didn’t need to do anything (just like how you don’t have to do anything for your roof unless it’s flat)
I feel like this video left out the role that the space program and the satellite industry played. The video mentioned that in the 1950's solar panels cost around $300 per watt and then jumped 50 years into the future talking about subsidy schemes that cost 4 times retail energy costs. If the panels still cost $300 per watt in 2000, the subsidy would have to be more like 150 times retail costs to make them attractive to homeowners, at which point they would never be sustainable, even on the short term.
The market that brought the cost down from $300 per watt to tens of dollars per watt, was the space industry. $300 a watt may be expensive, but if it is your only real option, which it is, if you are NASA or a communications satellite manufacturer. This market is (was) relatively small. But it was the original market for solar panels that allowed for continued research and development and economies of scale to the cost down to a point where earth based economically viable solar power could take hold.
By the 1970's the prices were around $70 a watt. Today they are less than a dollar per watt (for utility scale projects at least.)
In Malaysia, for solar system of 4.5 kwp, it costs around 4500 usd. Well it’s certainly cheaper than before, but for it to get mainstream, it has to go down further.
Then, when the sun goes behind a cloud or at night, your house goes completely dark and without power.
Obviously, this doesn't happen, you need a continuous connection to the grid and/or backup batteries, each with their own costs (upfront and monthly). Solar IS cheap per watt, but the reliability issue adds considerable cost to that $/watt price.
it's good and all, but, here in indonesia, even we got sunshine all year round, solar for privateer isn't the best option between daily needs and other bills
yas Björk quote
Solar Panels and Wind Turbine power will only work in certain geographical locations. Until power storage systems can become equal in energy density and as reliable as Nuclear Power, Hydro Dams, Gas, Oil, and Coal. Relying on electric generating systems other than the ones stated above is a "Pipe Dream".
I'm planning to have my house solar-powered when my lunch money is sufficient enough
What power company were used for the US money fugures? The TVA has some of the cheapest rates while Hawaii and California have the most expensive.
If you ignore the mining, the huge land mass it use up (and subsequent impact to local ecology) and inefficiency of energy production (places that can generate most solar arent necessarily in high demand of energy), then sure.
What do you suggest instead?
@@cobaltblue2756Mining coal 💀
@@fuewabutz4784sometimes people criticizing without providing alternative suggestions which is didn't help making any better, solar panels made of glass /silica most abandoned resources on the planet, most used element for construction, the amount we use for panel won't comparable what construction industrial used , yet we still building
Great!
Now let's talk about Exploitation! Are you ready?
@@cobaltblue2756a useful alternate solution would be nice if we all collectively considered and understood the alternative to private enterprise owning and being responsible of mineral resource extraction, fossil fuels, farming, construction, manufacturing, etc.
Because I rarely see anyone focus on that when they point out in rage that silica, copper, lithium and cobalt mining is no better but in fact worse than oil and coal, or gas, iron, lead, blood sweat and tears of working women and children.
"more than 25% of adults don't own their own homes"
wtf? who owns their own home?! you're telling me 75% do??
To anyone who reads this and hasn't got a quote for their current electric bill it is almost 10% more over the lifespan of the solar panel cost than what the actual electricity is going to be
The animation is excellent
*Praise the Sun*
Nice Dark souls reference, the people here won’t get it mate! But I got you, fellow veteran of the soulsborne genre..
Can someone tell me what software need to make videos like these
These panels wear out. Additionally, assuming you have full exposure to the sun, you'd be lucky to break even in 10 years. Lastly, any economist will tell you that they haven't perfected this technology enough. We're about 10 years away from solar being practical.
I think that I'm looking at 21 years to break even. The life expectancy is just 30-35 years. That does add up, though!
The sun is the greatest generator of energy we have, and we'll have it for millions of years.
WOOOO I LOVE TED ED SO MUCHHH
are there enough metals and materials required to make solar panels ?
More than enough. It’s the recycling and battery storage that’s holding things up.
Did you see that gigantic solar farm in Western Nebraska that was completely destroyed by a hailstorm last week? Now one would think that if you’re building a solar farm on the hail prone High Plains that you would make the solar panels more resistant to hail damage. Evidently common sense like that escaped the builders of that solar farm! That hailstorm turned into an extremely expensive mistake! If you’re going to encourage people in hail prone areas of the world to install more solar power, then you better make those panels much more resistant to hail damage, or it’s a completely superfluous endeavor.
I'm sorry who lives in a house 12 years. I'm 55 yrs old and have lived in 12 states and 32 towns and currently on my 5th year at my home. This is a culture of charging and charging. Everyone has 7 app for movies all costing a few hundreds a year, cars that after 10 years are subjected to people thinking you're poor. Yep they come to my house weekly in the summer and say we will put solar panels on your house and you will pay us $169 a month for 10 years, let me see the highest power bill i have with all brand new electric appliances is $89. There has been one outage in 5 yrs caused by snow on lines, yes it was a panic, until i went to my mancave and powered everything on battery backup.
Well, in the 90s they still where mostly a novelty toy. Now almost every proper tile roof in the rural areas, where people own their houses have solar on them. Because even if they don't pay for themselves they do a very good job of complementing emergency generators after flooding. But they also usually pay for themselves in around ~10-15 ish years. A diesel generator does not do that ever.
Fun fact. There is not enough rare earths mapped on earth to go carbon neutral ever.
First to comment there is 20 veiws and 1 minute.OVER!! Report sir!!!
As someone who lives outside of the US and Europe, it'd be nice green tech could be tarif-free, so that the whole world partake in preventing warming!
One problem there today I had solar power does not work during the night time or during a storm
I somehow read the title as "are your parents worth it?"😢.... I was taken aback but curious what the Ted ed report on parents would be
Ted ed can make a video on it too 😅
@@aditisk99 yeah they should...
What about the pollution caused by old and broken solar panels?
cool animations
Solar is really expensive in the US in india you can get that installed for $3000 for a big house
Seems there's a lot of downsides ignored or omitted in this video. Duck curve where there's more energy surplus in the day, while they become leeches at night, the problem with current energy storage where lithium is worse than oil since it has to be mined by slaves, a solar panel connected in a grid does not make the house more resilient to power outages because they're programmed to shut off if the grid goes down for safety, incentives taking money away for more important projects like upgrading the grid, etc.
It's not that simple.. the problem with solar and wind power is that they availability factor is not 100% (solar only works in the afternoon when the sun shines and wind has its ups and downs as well) and thus cannot relaibly supply the base load all day long.. maybe if combined with batteries it will but still not 100% and we still need other resources to maintain the stability of the grid like thermal or hydro (which has greater availability factor).. thats why i think what matters is balance between availability, economic efficiency, and environmental impacts
Has anyone noticed that the narrator, Jack Cutmore-Scott, sounded a bit nasal in this video? He sounded very different from the voice-over on the last segment linking to other videos. I wonder what happened.
Yet nobody ever talks about the issues residential homes with solar installations feeding solar power back into the grid pose. It’s fine as long as your generated power stays in your home, but having thousands of inverters feed alternating current back into the grid is causing the 50/60HZ sine wave to degrade into noise
If you live in SA 🇿🇦🇿🇦 it is *if you know you know*
Overly subsidized. Cheapest and cleanest energy is Nuclear energy. Its not as dangerous as they say.
It used to be overly subsidized, but subsidies have drastically dereased ever since.
As for nuclear, unfortunately, it is one of the most expenive energies right now. Yes it's clean and safe, and yes we will certainly need it in the future. But no, it is not cheap.
@@texanplayer7651 When considering everything its not that expensive. You got a lot of power there, wind, Solar cant compete. Perhaps we are not ready for it yet.
What is the overall impact on the environment, also what is the energy cost, of production and disposal of solar panels? Remember that they do short-out, eventually, and need to be discarded and replaced.
Sometimes I feel that a solar panel that bypasses electricity entirely would be more efficient, like something that uses lenses, water, and steam.
You ever been to a crude oil processing plant? Literally night and day in terms of net waste
@@GuitarGuy650 I'm not claiming anything, let alone that they compare. I'm asking for information. Remember that purely electric cars require HUGE resources to build and have TOXIC chemicals when they get disposed of. They are a LONG way from being environmentally "friendly". I wanna know how well Solar power really fares.
Where can I sign up for Ted-Ed Daily??
Make a video on quantum generator patent....
So is the answer yes or no
The very fact that solar is so cheap now is why private investors are steering clear of it - because the profit margins are not attractive enough
But we'll pay dearly for their inaction, or for the grid electricity of solar and wind at the pegged $/kWh for oil, gas and coal.
Wild that you skipped the most damning parts of solar. Like the coal silica needed to make the panels. The child labor in the mining. Or the 10 year lifespan of the panels. Or the battery required and the child labor in the mining. I'm a fan of solar but I'm a honest about the downside.
And perhaps fans of child labor will consider its use for solar panels as a downside as well
TedEd used to be so good at talking about both sides but this video didn't mention any negatives
I think you forgot to mention 'WEF Sponsored' caption in the beginning...
Would the solar panels that out last their warranty be worth installing?
Cut $$ 5000 off that price if you don’t hook to the grid you’re better off just to do a self supporting system it’s cheaper and it will pay you back faster
Good luck getting insured and applying for permits
it would cost too much to upgrade my 1200sqft home to solar power. I barely spend $2-3 a day on electricity. There are cons to having solar energy that is often overlooked. For example I'm a traffic engineer and my city installed solar panels for school flashers that kept failing to keep their energy. After a year of constant failures we ended up removing the solar panels in favor of grid power.
The math just doesn't make sense for a lot of people when you factor in risk of failure and upkeep. If the answer is it "might" pay for itself then it's not cost effective enough yet. I think utility suppliers should be be the big investors still. They should do us on lease agreements with homeowners too.
A complete lie on the one mention of a brown out. California is the primary solar user yet they are also the state with the most brownouts.
solar cell itself isn't, the problem lies within the storage, also since trying to make public solar power grid isn't efficient, less companies want to research solar cell compare to other energy source
It is only viable if the company rent it, while the home owner pay it with the electricity that it generate..
but most people don't have that large capital, for the panels.. let alone the whole electrical system such as battery..
The ROI is not good since on average people need 9-10 years on real life while on paper 7-8..
Don’t forget that solar 3.0 has been invented and will be available to commercially buy soon
Doesn't it depend on where it is situated?
How are you getting it that cheap?