alt Hacker NewsSolar panel installation costs, at least in the US haven't dropped in 15 years. It's still $25-30k to install 4kW-6kW worth of solar panels.
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Your numbers are way too high. I live in the very expensive San Francisco Bay Area and my system 6kW before federal tax credits was 16k to install in 2021. After credits it was < $12k. I have a friend in Tucson AZ who just paid $12K for a 4kW system with no subsidies.
I did not add a battery because at the time it would have doubled the price. Also, because I have net metering the battery never pays itself off.
The US is getting fleeced! 8 years ago it cost me about $10k AUD to install 6kW. Yes, it came with a $2.8k subsidy but still we are talking about a third.. 8 years ago.. And I paid extra for a Fronius inverter.
That’s wild. I’m getting 12x 450kW panels (5.4kW) and a 10kWh battery installed on my roof this month for a grand total of like €7k.
That’s the total cost including all materials and labour from scratch to a fully functioning system.
We paid $17k ($12k after subsidies) to install 5kW in Arizona five years ago.
Rooftop solar generally requires professional installation. Balcony solar, as discussed in the article, does not require professional installation and simply plugs directly into an outlet.
Dominated by labor costs, right? It'll probably just keep going up at this point, even if the panel cost went to zero.
I've always wondered if its possible to just buy and install the panels yourself.
That’s absolutely insane. I just had 5400Wp of panels installed with 15kWh of battery storage and it was ~€12k total. The battery was a bit over half of the costs. That’s the total cost, hardware and labour.
No need for permits for rooftop solar and the only dealings I had with the energy company was filling out an online form to register it. Took maybe 2 minutes.