The price of a PV system relies upon the system’s size and the sorts of parts, but also scales rather with the system size or rating, and the quantity of energy produced. If your application offers net-metering (paying the full retail price for your excess electricity), you and your utility will pay the exact same price for each other’s electricity. You need to use calculation tools to roughly guess how much electricity your PV system will produce and how much that electric power will be worth.
Power production from your PV system varies by as much as 20% from these figures, dependent on your geographical location, the angle and orientation of your system, the standard of the elements, and the quality of the installation. Also, you may not get full retail worth for excess electrical power created by your system on a once a year basis, regardless of whether your utility does offer net metering.
Be certain to discuss these issues with your PV provider. Request a written guesstimate of the average yearly energy production from the PV system. But even though an estimate is correct for an average year, actual electricity production fluctuates from year to year because of natural variations in climate and weather.
If your application isn’t offering net metering, you can still work out your system’s electricity production. Nonetheless there is a wrinkle. The excess electrical power is worth less than the electricity you actually use. You might receive only 2 cents per kilowatt-hour—or less than 1/2 of the retail rate—for your excess power. PV systems produce most of their electricity during the middle of the day, when home electric loads have a tendency to be small.
If your application does not offer net metering, you may want a system that is only large enough to meet your exact wants. Every situation is different and may need the aid of a local PV dealer to help select the right solar power system.
Warren Byrne is the leading expert on Solar Power Systems and has written this intensive resourceful book on the topic, read it today.