It depends a lot on where you live, and I forget where you are. If you're in Hawaii, do it nao!!!11! If you're in Michigan, it might not be all that cost effective. If you're in Alaska, maybe a brand new coal plant is the right choice?
It's not just based on latitude; California is a friendlier environment for solar than Alabama from both tax incentives and regulations. But over the last 2 years incentives have been getting smaller while the tariffs have increased the price of solar panels. California requires net metering on its utilities, and so you get better rates here as you'll tend to produce more when there's a surplus of power. But with the advent of Community Choice Energy, local utility brokers will likely give you better deals for clean energy than the big utilities, so it also depends on where you live in the state.
One of the things that you need to be aware of is that a third-party owner like Sunrun will likely be more expensive than buying from utilities. It also creates problems if you have to sell a property or make repairs to the roof, because they are leasing the property from you. You can expect 10-15 year payback from solar in the southern US, but not if you're letting a third party own the panels.
Sorry, I don't really know all that much about this, my education is in climatology, not the engineering side of it.
It's not just based on latitude; California is a friendlier environment for solar than Alabama from both tax incentives and regulations. But over the last 2 years incentives have been getting smaller while the tariffs have increased the price of solar panels. California requires net metering on its utilities, and so you get better rates here as you'll tend to produce more when there's a surplus of power. But with the advent of Community Choice Energy, local utility brokers will likely give you better deals for clean energy than the big utilities, so it also depends on where you live in the state.
One of the things that you need to be aware of is that a third-party owner like Sunrun will likely be more expensive than buying from utilities. It also creates problems if you have to sell a property or make repairs to the roof, because they are leasing the property from you. You can expect 10-15 year payback from solar in the southern US, but not if you're letting a third party own the panels.
Sorry, I don't really know all that much about this, my education is in climatology, not the engineering side of it.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto