Does Solar Cost? by Richard Turner

The Coal Point Energy Community Inc. is a group of residents of Coal Point who are exploring ways to make our electricity supply cheaper and more reliable. At the same time aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and establishing ways for the community to have more direct control over our local energy source.

Have you considered installing solar panels (PV) to your home? Even if you installed solar some time ago it is now time to revisit the issue as the solar landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years.

Solar panel and related management technology efficiency has improved significantly, to the extent that, even without subsidies or guaranteed high feed in tariffs, it is still worthwhile committing to installing solar.

Recommended independent information: www.solarquotes.com.au

The solar review process involves an energy consultant viewing your property and assessing its suitability for the installation of solar panels and, with access to your power bill, designing a system which optimizes the return on your investment (ROI). That is, a system which gives you the shortest “payback time” for your investment.

However, depending on your circumstances and your property, that may not necessarily be the best economic outcome.

Consider the scenario where the optimum system for ROI takes up only a small portion of your available roof space. You could potentially produce more solar electricity than the optimum “pay back time” so a different assessment methodology needs to be applied to the extra capacity. Assuming a feed in tariff of around 12c/kWh one then needs to calculate the cost of production of 1 kWh to determine the feasibility of the investment.

Most quality solar installations come with at least a 20 year “performance” warranty so it would follow that you use up to 20 years as your pay back time on your extra capacity. If you buy Telstra shares today your payback time is 10 years, for CBA its currently 12 years and BHP 15 years.

Assuming a pay back time of 10 years (conservative) and an interest rate of 5% (generous) the cost of production of 1kwH is around 4c and you can sell it to the grid for around 12c. That generates a ROI of around 5%. And the cost of electricity is only going to increase over time.

Saving on your power bill by producing your own is only a relatively minor benefit when you consider the bigger picture benefit of a solar system including:

1. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, solar generated electricity is a totally renewable source of energy 
2. Improving energy security by local generation which reduces demand on the national grid and reduces the likelihood of overload and 
3. Enabling individuals and the community to take greater control of their energy environment. 

If you would like to explore local energy options

• come along to our meeting at Progress Hall, 197 Skye Point Rd on Tuesday June 26th at 7pm  
• email a message to changecoalpointelectricity@gmail.com 
• join the discussion on the Nabo social media site.