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Plug-in balcony solar panels could mean cheaper power. But Canada needs to get on board first (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[–] 8 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Based on the cost of electricity in Canada, it would likely take over 10 years to pay off a balcony power system: https://solarenergies.ca/balcony-solar-panels-in-canada/

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    Cool. Solar panels produce near 100% power until they are 30 years old, which is when they drop to about 80% efficiency.

    They pay out at about 10% a year and produce something useful. That's a great investment that just keeps going.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I believe in unicorns and solar panels that last over 15 years.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    10 years is reasonable. 100% total return in 20 years. Pairing with power station provides portable power benefits, ups, grid backup, amping solutions, and time shifting increased use and larger systems.

    Many traditional investments have resulted in worse performance than drinking beer and returning empties.

    So convenient and low risk can make it attractive.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Those panels, inverters, etc, will not last 20 years and the fly by night companies that sell them are gone in under 5 years.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    ultra light panels don't have a longevity track record and are extremely prone to deterioration when heat is trapped behind them. The cheaper, but heavier framed rooftop panels now can be warrantied for 30 years agains degradation, and unless physically damaged have little reason to take them down after 60 years. LiFePo batteries (cheaper than original lithium) charged once per day, they can last 30 years too.

    It's a fair point that chargers and inverters will fail within 10 years or so. If going with LiFePo power station, they might need repair/part replacements, or you can recycle(paid for) the power station that stopped functioning. Power stations can provide value by bunding useful simple connections to a battery in a nice and portable case.

    It's a matter of scale to have repair/recycling local industry. Home Depot or other stores not having a large solar/battery section means its less popular, and shipping a bigger portion of costs.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (13 children)

    Agreed, Solar is not nearly as good in Canada compared to a lot of other countries.

    We (mostly) have cheaper power AND we have less sunlight.

    Germany has an average residential price for electricity around $0.60 CDN per kWh. Meanwhile I pay $0.145 per kWh in BC.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    AND we have less sunlight.

    Perhaps in BC, yes, but the rest of Canada has higher solar potential than much of Europe.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (8 children)

    Canada isn't just a strip along the US border... "Most" of Canada has lower solar potential than Europe.

    It's irrelevant though, the electricity price is by far the largest factor in it being such a weak investment here.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Ah yes, my mistake, we should definitely be considering the solar PV that's going to be serving the grid in unpopulated parts of the country.

    Still, my statement is still true when considering the north.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Those unpopulated areas actually make the most sense for solar PV in Canada, they often either don't have electricity at all, or are using very expensive sources of electricity (like gas/diesel generators)

    Here's the problem I'm having. For any of the places along the southern border of Canada, where electricity is cheap as fuck (fuck you Alberta and Saskatchewan), the payback costs on Solar PV (especially at the house scale) are essentially non-existent.

    So for now, we should let other countries(along with Alberta and Saskatchewan) buy and install those panels and not have to compete with the rest of the country (which lowers the prices) for the currently limited supply of available panels.

    We can install some in those other places in 20-30 years when the tech has gotten even cheaper and it finally does become viable financially.

    It's not like BC, Ontario, and Quebec's electricity generation is particularly carbon intense, the are all under 10% fossil fuels already. It's almost all renewables or nuclear as it is.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    AB and SK have among the higher electricity rates across all the provinces, but not by a considerable amount.

    I agree, solar (with storage) does make sense for a community not connected to the grid and using generators locally, but a community being there thus makes it a populated place.

    Is there a shortage of panels? I had no trouble getting mine and there's been no indication from suppliers that stock is limited.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    The average cost of electricity in Alberta is almost twice the value for BC. When doing a calculation for something like solar investment, that's a huge difference.

    Production of solar panels is reasonable right now, but still limited compared to the potential demand which is why there's so much investment in new capacity. It's not that panels are unavailable, but there aren't just millions of panels laying around uninstalled either. They're rolling off the line, getting transported, and then getting installed.

    The scale of "let's do this for the country" even with Canada being relatively small would end up impacting prices globally.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Toronto is at the same latitude as Rome.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Rome has a residential electricity price of 0.35 Euros per kwh, which is about $0.50 cdn. Torontos midpeak price per kwh is 12.2 cents.

    The latitude doesn't matter when the price of electricity is literally one fourth of the amount.

    There isn't even a 4x difference between the north pole and the equator for solar irradiation.

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