Quote:
Originally Posted by zendog3
This year we have experienced stronger storms, more frequent floods, droughts, forest fires, rising seas, melting glaciers, etc. Most people will agree that global warming, caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the air, is a primary driver of catastrophic weather events that will seriously impact the quality of life our children and grandchildren will inherit from us. The Villages is uniquely positioned to lead the nation in remediating the harmful effects of ongoing carbon dioxide pollution.
It would be a source of pride for all Villagers if the developer of The Villages, the preeminent builder in central Florida, and an enormously profitable business, would announce one of its forthcoming villages would be a “Solar Village.” Every house and public building in the solar village could be partially solar-powered.
As it has led in planned community development, The Villages can lead the nation in sustainable community development.
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I plan to install solar on my home, after I complete my other projects. My reason is to reduce my monthly costs, so I will need to make sure the business case is solid. I know the component costs are coming down, and the efficiency is going up. There is tax credit to offset the investment.
Problem is that there are a bunch of sales people from different companies that don't know what they are talking about. The don't know anything about the systems that they are trying to pawn. Their spiel is to say that you will get it for free, in that your monthly payment to them will be the same or less than the cost of paying your current electric bill. The roll in the tax credit to make it look good. Their system cost is triple of what it should actually cost. If the developer were negotiate a system with a supplier, it would be much more cost effective.
Oh, also even if I use 0.00 KW in a month, I still need to pay SECO $1 per day. What a scam.
Of course the solar system is clean and green, but money talks. If a new home were to have the solar power installed, the cost to build the home would increase about $8000 on average, but they could charge $13K - $14K extra to the home buyer, and it would still be a good value to the homebuyer, while the developer makes more profit. If they want to do a whole village like this or at least a section of a village, it would be pretty cool. Better yet, if they could let customers spec if they what the system or not, and perhaps let them chose the system capacity, or even if they want storage batteries to use stored energy at night.
I know people that spend a lot to have a backup generator; putting that invested amount toward solar energy production is financially more sensible.