Cheap Solar Panel

Solar power a harder sell in Seattle

Putting solar power panels on your roof doesn't make as much sense in Seattle as it does in many other places, but it's not because of our gray climate.

"You look across the sea at Germany, the country with the most installed solar modules in the world," said Mike Nelson, director of the Clean Energy Technology Program at Shoreline Community College. "Almost all of Germany has roughly the same solar climate as Forks."

So what does Germany have that we don't? Pricier power, noted green-building consultant Alistair Jackson, a principal at Seattle's O'Brien & Co.

"Electricity's just so ridiculously cheap here that, from a pure payback perspective, even with all the incentives that are available, the paybacks are very long."

Let's look at the numbers, keeping in mind that these are all estimates that vary with your circumstances.

A typical system costs $5 to $8 per watt of production capacity, adding up to $15,000 to $24,000 for a typical 3,000-watt system, including installation, according to Seattle City Light . Such a system generates about 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, breaking down to 17 to 27 cents per kilowatt hour generated over a 30-year lifespan. That compares with Seattle City Light rates of less than 5 cents for the first 10 kilowatt hours a day and 10 cents for subsequent use in the summertime.

But incentives change the equation.

The federal government will refund 30 percent of the cost of a solar system as a tax credit. Washington exempts 75 percent of the cost from state sales tax through June 2013.

The state also pays 30 cents per kilowatt hour generated for solar systems, adding 36 cents if the solar inverter (the device that converts direct to alternating current) is made in Washington and another 72 cents if the solar modules are made here. That could mean more than $4,000 a year for a typical system with panels and an inverter built in Washington. The payment is capped at $5,000 a year.

Finally, any solar power you don't use goes back into the grid, spinning the meter backwards and lowering your electric bill.

All told, a solar system can pay for itself in less than a decade, Nelson said. "In terms of large-scale energy investments, solar electric looks like one of the best deals out there."

For many Seattle homes, however, other measures would pay for themselves more quickly, Jackson argued. "The reality is that there are just a lot of better places to invest your money in terms of return right now.

SunShot: $50 Million Closer to Cheap Solar Power and Green Jobs, Too

The Obama administration has been focusing on that create new green jobs, and the new could turn out to be a major twofer for U.S. businesses. First, the program is designed to advance solar technology research that will make clean solar energy as cheap as, or cheaper than, fossil fuels within a few short years.  This will help more companies manage their utility bills with a source of renewable energy that is not vulnerable to market spikes.

Second, SunsShot is focused on creating new green jobs in domestic manufacturing as well as in research and development. Let’s face it, anything that puts more money in consumers’ pockets is a welcome relief these days. The latest program out of SunShot is called . It focuses on the green jobs manufacturing goal, most recently with $50 million in new Department of Energy funding over the next two years devoted to developing promising low cost solar technologies into commercial scale.

Solar Panel Manufacturing in the U.S.

When you think about the decline in U.S. manufacturing, the auto industry may be the first thing that comes to mind, but the solar energy sector also provides a textbook case of a powerhouse domestic industry losing its grip on the global market. According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. dominated the world in photovoltaic panel manufacturing until the mid-1990′s, when it peaked at a whopping 43% of global market share. The figure right now is a dismal 7%.

The SunShot Initiative and Space Exploration

President Obama launched SunShot earlier this year and the reference to of generations ago is no accident. Moonshot called upon the public to support space research as a reaction to the success of Russia’s space program. The idea was that private industry could not muster the resources to compete globally without a strong federal program that deployed public funding to push research forward, raised public awareness to recruit innovators into the industry, and provided a stable, predictable legislative framework. The rest is history: within a few short years Neil Armstrong was on the moon.

A Boost for Domestic Photovoltaic Manufacturing

SUNPATH’s Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative kicked off with Part I, which provided $110 million in funding to set up three research and development partnerships, aimed at reducing the cost of manufacturing photovoltaic modules. For Part II, the latest $50 million round of funding aims to scale the operations up to high volumes. Want to get in on the action? If you have an industrial-scale demo of low cost photovoltaic modules or related gear, apply to the .

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