Some neighbors put solar panels on their house maybe 20 years ago, in one of the earlier subsidy binges. They love them. They don’t go around proselyting, but they do enjoy major savings. They also have some kind of electric car — I’ve not bothered to notice the make — to go alongside their well-maintained 20 year old conventional car with 300,000 miles on it.
When the solar panels were installed, I did ask about the cost. Their out of pocket cost at that time was $3,000. Being a bull in the manger, I then asked if they knew the total project cost. They did; they are pretty sharp people, entrepreneurial, regular churchgoers and at least nominally Republican, though of the squish variety. The total project cost at that time was about $30,000.
Moral of the story: solar is an excellent investment if you can get someone else to pick up 90 percent of the cost.
The greenies are peddling massive subsidies and lying about it. I would have no objection to the push for home solar if they were honest about the cost. It’s the lying I object to. And the hiding of the cost in the utility bills; it’s primarily paid via renewable energy purchase mandates imposed on the utilities, which means that it’s embedded in other people’s billings.
At this point in time, I can get solar panels on my house at zero out of pocket cost to me; the utility would get the solar panels, I would get the power, and the utility gets count the installation towards its regulatory mandate. I should probably do this soon and let all the neighbors start subsidizing my electricity.
Yeah we too but probably not. We have a good size space on the south side of the house with clear space we could use rather than making a nesting area for pigeons in the roof. Also down slope east side where some panels could go. Might blind our next door neighbors though. Or catch the fence on fire.
I agree with your overall premise that we should quit subsidizing solar (or just about anything else). But I disagree with the implication that the subsidies impact a person's decision on whether or not to get solar. This is based on my belief that the subsidies artificially inflate prices.
In my case the 26% solar tax credit artificially inflated the otherwise $24K system to almost $33K because the suppliers and installer knew that I was willing to cough up a net $24K and that jacking up the cost to $33K with the 26% tax credit would result in the net cost to me being within my threshold.
So the tax credit didn't impact my decision on whether or not to get solar. What it did do was make my suppliers richer.