Why doesn't every house have solar installed?

[freeagent]

For us, we have to apply for a permit, and it will only be granted if you can feed back into the grid, so you would need another meter. It can be worth it if you have a large roof, or yard. But for our setup, it just is not practical.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

For us, we have to apply for a permit, and it will only be granted if you can feed back into the grid, so you would need another meter. It can be worth it if you have a large roof, or yard. But for our setup, it just is not practical.

You are pretty far north, too. You get 15% less sun power per year than I do, even with a more favorable climate (from a solar radiation perspective).

Seems like a good place to ask this.....
So, planning on doing some renovation, the balcony at my parent's place is on the South West, and gets decent sun. Its roof is a metal sheet, i can fit maybe a 400W panel on there. Is it going to be worth it?

The city has 2 way metering system, so no need of batteries and such, its also in the highest tier in property location, so no power cuts, no batteries required there either.

400W will be worth it? 22.5744° N

Using Kolkata as a baseline, it looks like you will generate around 377 kWh per square meter of panel.

Based on 22.8% efficiency panels, which seems to be the going rate for quality panels. Angling it 45 degrees away from due South will lose approximately 30% efficiency by area.

So 264 kWh per year per square meter. Size your panels and calculate payback period.

Indore is slightly further north, but due to climate it gets more sun. 434 kWh per year, or 303 kWh pointing Southwest.

 

[R-T-B]

LOL, what?

The converter, batteries, and wiring to your box including electrician labor, a one time cost, will honestly cost more. Of course I should have clarified thats for a completely offgrid setup. Or my neighbor overpaid somewhere.

As for the numbers, I trust my washington neighbor who has already paid for his somewhat, and the IEA a lot more than you, frankly.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Off-grid makes sense, batteries with an useful capacity and lifetime are not cheap. Inverters can get up there too.

 

[Endymio]

The converter, batteries, and wiring to your box including electrician labor, a one time cost, will honestly cost more.

Convert and wiring? Not even close. Read the NREL report I posted a link to. As for "batteries", one large enough to replace the array for any reasonable period of time will easily triple or quadruple the costs. So in that case, yes -- but that alters the cost analysis from "possibly economic" to "by far the most expensive" and "wildly impractical".

 

[R-T-B]

one large enough to replace the array for any reasonable period of time will easily triple or quadruple the costs.

Yes, that's what I said. Going offgrid means covering evenings. I believe my neighbor did not use leadacid but LiFePO too, which probably brought costs even higher.

I've admitted by now the neighbors scenario may be a tad unusual. Which makes you correct for most cases, yes.

 

[SchumannFrequency]

Solar energy has several problems that currently prevent it from being called green energy.

- The solar panels are produced using coal energy, the form of energy that produces the most emissions into the air.
- The production of the solar panels in China, in particular the refining of solar silicon using significant amounts of chemicals and raw materials, the production of the auxiliary systems, the transport of the materials to Europe.
- Many solar panels contain lead and cadmium.
- There is a risk that solar panels can release multiple carcinogenic substances onto agricultural land.
- The 'waste' that solar energy brings with it through batteries and panels will become larger and larger in the coming years and will be difficult to process without creating many emissions.
- In countries like China and many other countries, they do not have the money to recycle the panels and batteries.
- Small batteries are harmful and should not be disposed of in the waste. However, in many countries, recycling these small batteries is problematic. You can imagine that recycling the batteries for solar energy can be even more problematic.
- On the other hand, experience shows that the power yield is (very) modest under the climatic conditions in Germany.