Cost of Solar Panels Falls Dramatically

The cost of solar panels has fallen dramatically recently, from around $20 per Watt in 2008 to just 74 cents per Watt in 2013. Solar panels in Auckland have around a 15% efficiency factor. So a 1KW array might output an average of 150 Watts over the course of 24 hours, giving 3.6 KWhrs per day, a 2Kwatt array would give 7.2 Kwatt hours and so on Wellington and other places further south would theoretically get slightly less.

Meridian Energy’s buy-back offer is 25 cents per KWhr up to a maximum of  5KWhrs. Personally, I think this means an install of around 2Kwatt  makes the best economic sense for NZ residential installations at present, unless you have unusually large daytime loads. At current prices that will cost you about $1500 for the PV,s then you’ve got the cost of the inverter, and the install. We had a quote for around $9000 all up ( the inverters are still quite expensive). Not bad and it may be marginally economic. If not now, it will be soon on current trends… Then NZ engineers will have an interesting time figuring out how PVs on residential roofs affect the rest of the electricity system….. There could be additional investment required on local distribution networks to cope with power flows in opposite directions to the original design

Has anyone had any experience installing solar PVs in their home? I’m interested in any NZ experiences!