I seem to recall that CA has already enacted new construction regulations for solar power. It's just passed on to the home buyer as one would expect. Problem here is the conflicting code requirements, intrusion into the roof, damage to tiles, dust, pigeons roosting under the panels, loss of efficiency over time, disposal of said toxic panels and the cost to maintain and replace. Two of my neighbors had to wait almost 2 years to get their installations approved before they could "hook up". Feeding back into the grid for others in other states at the CA homeowner's expense benefits them how?. There is a maze of regulations that deal with compensation for the power generated and it generally doesn't benefit the homeowner.
My average power bill is about $125 a month factoring in summer rates. I don't need nor want solar, it's a pain in the ass.
Sounds like your bitch is with your city/state more than the solar itself.
I don;t care about the benefit to others except in the case that it is probably the best move possible to de-centralize the grid. I am for the distributed platform. That is hard to hit effectively. And I am also for folks not having to endure outage and rolling outage.
And no, the costs are not that bad - It's money alright. and the money is all up front, which hurts. But maintenance is not expensive, especially if it is staggered. Many hillbillies I know start with two panels and two batteries and add on as they go - Part of that is certainly about the cost, no doubt. But it is also about staggering on the end too - When it starts to fail nearly 15 years out, it will tend to fail a little at a time, as the oldest stuff will be the point of failure. SO replacement goes on a little at a time too.
I think your opinion is not taking consideration of improvements in the tech. It is cheaper to buy and install, more efficient, and better made than before. I know it doesn't pay for some folks - me, I pay about 50 bucks a month for electric in the winter, when I use it most. But I will be committed to solar up in the holler (nothing else for it if I want electricity) And up there it definitely is cheaper than dragging in a line.
But even here - Just for the peace of mind - I am putting in a rudimentary system. A couple panels just to keep the batteries cycling... and batteries between the house and the jenny so the jenny doesn't have to run all the dang time during an outage. Four panels and four batteries would run me fine, other than 220... and maybe when the nuke kicked on, or the fridge and freezer kicked on at the same time. But between use and on-grid buy-back programs,the investment really ain't as bad as it looks. Especially if scaled.
And I guarantee - I will never pay 125 a month for electric.
