{"id":5306,"date":"2010-07-19T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/us\/?p=5306"},"modified":"2010-07-17T13:42:39","modified_gmt":"2010-07-17T18:42:39","slug":"the-real-price-of-solarpanels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/articles\/2010\/07\/19\/the-real-price-of-solarpanels\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Price of Solarpanels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/panelen.jpg\" class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-6476\" src=\"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/panelen-100x75.jpg\" alt=\"panelen\" width=\"100\" height=\"75\" \/><\/a> Due to very popular demand \u263a I was asked to translate my original article into English.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The original article, written in Dutch, can be found <a title=\"De echte prijs van zonnepanelen | OliNo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/articles\/2009\/08\/24\/de-echte-prijs-van-zonnepanelen\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Because this article is 6 months old, \u00a0I have updated the latest prices.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer I received a question from one of my co-workers about our solar panels.\u00a0 \u00a0He didn\u2019t want to know the recovery time of the whole set, \u00a0but the net kWh price from the generated electricity over the lifetime of the set of solar panels.\u00a0 After making a calculation, \u00a0I found the conclusion surprising.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Creating a Calculation\u00a0with Excel<\/h3>\n<p>I have made a calculation in Excel in which I have made the following assumptions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Solar panels produce 850kWh\/kWp every year;<\/li>\n<li>Every 10 years the inverter needs to be replaced and a new inverter will cost about the same as the current one;<\/li>\n<li>Cabling is not replaced in this period;<\/li>\n<li>Yield loss on the PV plant over time is not calculated ;<\/li>\n<li>Cost of the whole plant is done without any incentive;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve calculated this for our three systems and for a virtual system from SolarNRG:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>93Wp installation above our front door with a OK4E inverter;<\/li>\n<li>1320Wp installation on the east side\u00a0on a SMA SB1100 inverter;<\/li>\n<li>500Wp installation on the west side\u00a0on a Soladin 600 inverter;<\/li>\n<li>2100Wp virtual set from SolarNRG, assuming the installation of this set didn\u2019t cost anything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Excel file with my calculation can be downloaded here: <a title=\"Calculation Real Price of Solar Panels\" href=\"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/real_price_solar_panels.xls\">Calculation Real Price of Solar Panels (excel)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>South Installation<\/h3>\n<p>This set costs 300 euro\u2019s, excluding the inverter, and\u00a0 the inverter was 50 euro\u2019s. \u00a0Three inverters\u00a0amount to 150 euro\u2019s. This set will produce 2372kWh over a period of 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>kWh price : 300 + 150 \/ 2372 = <strong>18,9 cents\/kWh <\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>East Installation<\/h3>\n<p>This set costs 3300 euro\u2019s excluding the inverter,\u00a0 and \u00a0the SB1100 inverter was 965 euro\u2019s. Three of these\u00a0amount to 2895 euro\u2019s. This set will produce 33660kWh over a period of 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>kWh price : 3300 + 2895 \/ 33660 = <strong>18,4 cents\/kWh<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>West Installation<\/h3>\n<p>This set costs 1050 euro\u2019s, \u00a0excluding the Soladin 600 inverter, which costs around 350 euro\u2019s. \u00a0Three inverters amount\u00a0to 1050 euro\u2019s. This set will produce 12750kWh over a period of 30 years.<br \/>\nkWh price : 1050 + 1050 \/ 12750 = <strong>16,4 cents\/kWh<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Virtual Set<\/h3>\n<p>This virtual set consists of 12 Sharp NU-180-E1 solar panels on a SB2100TL inverter.\u00a0 This total set costs 7325,70 euro\u2019s. \u00a0A SB2100TL inverter costs around 1350 euro\u2019s.\u00a0 Three inverters will cost around 4050 euro\u2019s. This set will produce 2160*0,85*30 = 55080kWh over a period of 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>kWh price : 10025,70 \/ 55080 = <strong>18,2 cents\/kWh<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Grid Parity?<\/h3>\n<p>All the aforementioned sets are producing electricity more cheaply than the current listed kWh price.\u00a0 Currently, \u00a01kWh will cost around 24 eurocents here in The Netherlands, \u00a0including energy tax and VAT.\u00a0 With this in mind, \u00a0Grid parity for solar panels has been reached in The Netherlands.\u00a0 With the virtual set from SolarNRG, \u00a0your electricity price would be fixed at 18,2cents\/kWh for the amount produced each year and that for a period for 30 years.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>This calculation is a very simplistic one and it doesn\u2019t take every single item into account, \u00a0but even with this knowledge, \u00a0it&#8217;s fairly safe to say that solar panels have reached grid parity in The Netherlands. \u00a0I think it\u2019s even more important to change our views on solar panels.\u00a0 Instead of asking what the recovery time is, \u00a0the emphasis should be set on the electricity price of the solar panels.\u00a0 In all the above cases, \u00a0this is way below the current listed electricity prices.<\/p>\n<h3>Addendum by Jan Maarten Fernig<\/h3>\n<p>I received quite\u00a0a lot of\u00a0feedback about my article.\u00a0 One from Jan Maarten Fernig was very interesting.\u00a0\u00a0 He has an additional calculation which is interesting. This can be downloaded here <a title=\"financial calculation pv panel\" href=\"http:\/\/www.olino.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/jmfis-pv-panel-financial-calculation.xls\">Financial Calculation PV Panel (excel)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to very popular demand \u263a I was asked to translate my original article into English.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The original article, written in Dutch, can be found here.\u00a0\u00a0 Because this article is 6 months old, \u00a0I have updated the latest prices. Last summer I received a question from one of my co-workers about our solar panels.\u00a0 \u00a0He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5306"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5475,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions\/5475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olino.org\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}