Where I live it is much more cost-effective to put up a minimal solar package and count on buying your energy from the utility. ROI on solar is never. The panels deteriorate and the batteries die long before a positive ROI is reached. After your battery dies it is more cost effective to run without the battery than to replace it. I was going to buy a new home but when I found out how overpriced the solar was I found a much better deal on a larger home built in 1988. I could have installed the same parts as a retrofit for less than half the cost of the cash price for the solar that was mandated. Even under net-metering solar was not cost effective. Adding a meaningful battery would more than double the cost. At the time the maximum solar that could be installed on a new home with no history would only cover about 50% of the energy needs. Most people who were buying were doing a power purchase agreement. Under todays rules they would be paying more for the solar production than the utility would give them credit for. When the solar requirements were passed the legislature was told that becase the solar was mandated and designed in from the start it would be much more cost effective than a retrofit. Well it would be more cost effective for the builder but becase it is mandated the solar can be prices as high as they wanted. The house I was looking at wanted $4,000/DCkW. I was getting quotes for retrofit at $3,000 and I could retrofit my new purchas for $2,000 but even at $2,000/DCkW on a 12 DCkW system would not have bin viable. There are areas in CA that chasing solar has raised electric rates to the point that solar is viable even with a battery if you do not count the time value of money, but there are others were it is like burning money. I installed solar on my pervious house that I still own and even under the old rules and with the saving I got by not paying any labor or solar company it still was not a good deal. The stock I sold made more money than the solar saved. Solar can be a good deal if everything goes just right but there are a lot of ways to get burned. The most cost effective way to get solar is to buy a house from someone who installed it and pay them little or no extra becase it has solar. If it is on a power purchases agreement offer a lower price if they do not remove the solar.
I took my best year and calculated what it would cost to be off grid rather than grid-tied and the number I came up with was 8 times as much. My system has covered my energy bill every year except this one. When I found out I had to pay $480 for my true-up bill last month I found out I had 5 of 14 microinverters that worked some of the time but not all the time. They all had good days but when I look at the monthly output, these 5 inverters did not measure up.
