John’s ranting about the shortage and price of solar modules over on his blog. He can get pretty entertaining at times, but he is also very serious. This guy wants everybody to have a roof or backyard full of solar panels.
I find it amazing that the government creates a full tilt initiative to promote solar and then puts all kinds of roadblocks in the way. It must be working to some degree. We know solar farms are going up everywhere, but even in the home and DIY market, it is getting harder to find 24 and 48v system hardware. Closing down reliable coal and nuke plants before the solar farms are running all get battery assistance is really dumb, especially with electric cars being forced upon us.
Then, once people adopt solar, they find the .gov or the power company has put some limitation in the way. California now requires every new home to have solar, but they have been promoting a rate structure that would eliminate solar. In the meantime, people in California need solar to keep the lights on, because the power company can’t seem to do so.
Good news on that front, a judge just ruled that Arkansas power companies must go with net metering and pay homeowners full retail for their excess power. Even better, no solar connection fees.
There is also potentially good news on the solar panel front. The industry notes that many solar farms will be repowering soon. The hitch is, THEY have to find some new solar panels. Nothing wrong with second hand solar. I have over 300 of them, 15 years old, out on the Solar Shed and my house is off the grid. These were not even pampered like farm solar panels. These were stomped on and thrown off the roof.
When John sells used, they are tested and graded by appearance and you get a warranty. It may soon get better than that. So many panels could be coming to market that there will be new uniform standards for grading. For example, today’s panels are made with higher dielectric ratings (how high a system voltage you can run without you getting electrocuted ) Early grid tie strings would run up 300 to 600 volts and now the commercial farms can run over 1000. That’s good to know if you put together a grid tie system with a new inverter and used panels. (Unless you live in Arkansas, grid tie may not be a good idea.) I think the rest of it is pretty much what John has done for years.
Anyway, we may see cheap panels return IF the solar farms can get new panels. The used panels will not be these 400+ watt super modules, they’ll be the 250 watt modules. No problem, you pay by the watt and not very much. Just use more. Those 300+ solar shingles at the Solar Shed are only 34 watts each on a good day, but they add up to some serious kilowatts.
Now, if we could only get rid of a couple of dozen government agencies that nitpick us to death! Seems like I recall that in Biblical times they’d have a Jubilee. Every 50 years, everything would get reset. That’d be great. Congress can crank out a lot of laws and regulations in 50 years, but at least they would not pile up on the previous ones.
In the meantime, let’s get John outfitted with new boots and fedora. Send him out to search the land for more panel bargains.–Neal