I do not expect the price of those type batteries to increase in 10 years. Most likely, as solar power becomes cheaper and cheaper, and regular electricity becomes higher and higher, more people will be buying these systems and prices will come down as technology continues to improve.
“”Keep in mind, he paid $70k in 2001. The price for these types of systems has come down a lot since then. Plus the tax credits are there to reduce your real cost by around 33%. Also, he is probably getting paid by the local utility for extra energy being used.
I do not expect the price of those type batteries to increase in 10 years. Most likely, as solar power becomes cheaper and cheaper, and regular electricity becomes higher and higher, more people will be buying these systems and prices will come down as technology continues to improve.””
Given the increased price of oil (from $18.00 per barrel in 1998 to $85.00 per barrel in 2007), the cost of large, heavy items will be INCREASING over the next few years...not decreasing. People have gotten used to prices of samll electronics (DVDs, CDs, IPods, etc.) going down but those items don’t require a lot of oil to produce and ship to the customer. Bigger items (solar panels, deep-discharge batteries, etc) consume a lot more oil in the manufacturing/distribution processes. Additonally, the hazardous chemicals in those deep-discharge batteries are environmentally unfriendly. Sooner or later, someone is going to tax them heavily and they will become more expensive.
Remember, over the last 30 years, the technology for car manufacturing has gotten better...but automobile selling prices have done nothing but rise. The same is true with any other large, heavy item (refrigerators, boats, furniture, etc.).
And...lets not even begin to discuss the cost to install the solar panels and battery systems. Those costs are tied to labor costs...and when have labor costs gone down?