Technology

If you are willing to DIY you can cut that number dramatically. Out of curiosity what was the size of the array in that quote and did it include battery storage if so how much chances are that you can cut it by anywhere from 50% to 75% if you're willing to Simply purchase directly and install yourself. The amount that installers charge is absolutely asinine usually 50% or more of that quote is just the installation which is in the same because it's not difficult at all. People like to act scared like oh that'll be difficult or hard or dangerous, it's extremely simple you're dealing with DC which is very straightforward everything is very clearly labeled on that equipment and it's quite simple to do yourself

Is that paying cash for the solar system or financing? Financing can devastate the ROI with interest rates today. I'm looking at as long as 12 year ROI with possibly as short as 7 year ROI if I consider the USA's federal tax incentives. My slightly southern latitude (a border state with Canada) also likely contributes to slightly higher generation results using the same equipment.

How are the government incentives in Canada? I'm super envious of your great hydro power, my neighbor.

Well it's the company/ies not the product

In america the installation costs as much as or more than the panels. Until the install costs come down no one is going to do it.

Prices for the batteries and panels themselves have dropped. Just not the cost to install them.

They are not rare. It is the fastest growing energy production mode and is growing faster every year.

Residential installations lag behind the commercial due to installation costs, but they are blowing up as well. I can walk around my neighborhood and see a couple dozen homes with it.

It's also highly regional. The further south in the northern hemisphere the more common.

Where I live, power companies successfully lobbied to charge a minimum fee to people using a grid-tied system (as opposed to off-grid). So now a bill that might have been lowered to $9.00 will cost the minimum fee of $30.00 (actual example). You might say, that $30.00 is still a very low power bill but how long will it take before that starts going up? They are also lobbying to buy power from homeowners for less than they charge homeowners. This was a huge turn-off for me considering the high cost of installation. When I asked the solar installer about off-grid installations, he said they weren't allowed to offer those. Not sure why but got the impression it was a government thing and not a company thing. Not sure.

Here in Canada prices have stayed stubbornly high. It's the Canadian way.

I have panels that I bought for under $0.50/watt that they were clearing out at the local wholesaler years ago. Haven't been able to find anything even near that price range since, and I'm an electrician with access to wholesale pricing.

I have found some decent prices recently but they're all on full pallet lots. So you need to be a business dedicated to solar installs to get a fair price, and those businesses obviously don't pass the savings on as that's not the Canadian way.

Batteries are an even worse situation! If you live here and want storage, I hope you like lead-acid.

Think of all the profits you're delivering to shareholders!