alt Hacker NewsYeah I question the overall economics. I wonder if balcony solar is a net negative for the environment.
If you assume the cost of a thing can serve as a rough proxy for the energy inputs of the thing then until you meet RoI you're likely negative (environmentally speaking)
casual if the RoI for these is 4-8 years. and some stats[1] show most renters don't stay in one place that long. Given that the majority of people move at least once inside the RoI period, and may not move to somewhere with a balcony that can set up the solar it's possible that more of these system will end up in a landfill than actually help the environment.
which isn't to say I'm against deregulation here. I don't see any real reason to prevent people from being allowed to set them up so long as they're safe. and certainly some people will get great use out of them. but I also don't think they're as categorically great as they're made out to be.
Why would they end up in a landfill? You can also set them up inside your garden if you end up in a regular house, or mount them to the outside wall, or sell them to the next renter of your old apartment, or sell them on eBay, or...
The panel is just a regular rooftop solar panel in a slightly different form factor. The RoI is so low because you are skipping the expensive installation phase. That's literally all there is to it. They'll last a year or 20, and you can install them anywhere there is some form of sunlight.
Energy-wise you're recouped the production cost after as little as 1 to 3 years. You have to try really hard to have a solar panel be a net negative. Just don't place it indoors or in your basement or something and it'll work out just fine.