[aussiegreenie]

You are correct but will talk about Australia.

Australian rooftop solar is less than half the US prices. A 6.6 kW system installed retails at(AUD 2700 /USD 1870) and yet we have some of the most expensive electricity in the world at USD 0.25 per kW-h. In many places, 1 in 3 houses having rooftop solar. We have over 9GW currently installed and increasing at 1.5GW per year.

All this new production is taking market share from existing generators. And if you add storage, the utilities are in trouble. Therefore, it would seem to make sense if the utilities own assets and continue to sell electricity to clients. But, it is not.

The three big electricity companies are vertically integrated. They own both generation and energy retailing. (aka Gen-tailers). If they started owning small scale PV they would be faced with devaluing their existing generation assets. Or worst the grid (poles and wires). As long as the gen-tailers can pretend that solar is "marginal" they can produce huge profits from worthless assets. Over the next few years, the companies will shut their old coal plants and go all-in on solar but the longer they delay it the more profits they make.

Eg the NSW Government sold an old coal-fired generator for $1 million, the company who purchased it revalued it for $720 million a few years later. Electricity prices rose and the Federal government removed a Carbon Tax making the plant highly profitable.

The Australian electricity market is broken and so people make rational decisions to use rooftop solar. But if the energy companies moved into rooftop solar, it would cause them problems in operations and Balance Sheet problems.

[sien]

A quick search gives figures of AUD 5-7K for a ~6KW system.

https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/6kw-solar-pv-systems-pri...

https://mcelectrical.com.au/blog/what-size-solar-system-do-i...

https://solaray.com.au/6kw-solar-power-system-price-output-s...

(The last one suggests that cheap 6KW systems are junk)

[cstrat]

There is a lot of negotiation room with solar installs. I paid just shy of $7K AUD for a 8.2kW Fronius inverter with 9kW worth of Suntech panels. The solar credit scheme contributes quite a lot of money to the installers so subsidise the setup. I checked wholesalers and I think the materials were worth more than the $7K AUD.

[zizee]

> A 6.6 kW system installed retails at(AUD 2700 /USD 1870)

That sounds too little to pay for a decent quality system which will last 20 years. For decent components, from a reputable supplier you'd be expecting to pay around twice that.

You're also discounting the need to have power after the sun goes down. If you compare roof top to mains, you really need to include the cost of a battery large enough to go off grid, which is at least another $10k, and quite a bit more if you don't want to have any lifestyle changes.

I have a 5.5 kw roof system that I am very happy with, but I won't pretend that it replaces mains power.

I also expect to be keeping mains for a long time yet. I have a desire to make my next car electric. I used to think that the grid would go into a death spiral inches batteries got cheap enough. Now I think electric cars will save it.

I think solar and storage are the future and really want that future now, and I think you do as well. But you do it a disservice by overselling the case.

[nordsieck]

> You're also discounting the need to have power after the sun goes down. If you compare roof top to mains, you really need to include the cost of a battery large enough to go off grid, which is at least another $10k, and quite a bit more if you don't want to have any lifestyle changes.

I don't think most people with solar are entertaining the possibility of going off grid. Rather they are comparing solar with net metering vs no solar. In that case, it is entirely appropriate to omit your suggested battery.

[zizee]

Please read my comment in the context that it was a reply to someone saying electricity companies in Australia are not moving into rooftop solar because it would undermine their current investments.

I am not arguing rooftop solar does not make sense to install. I have a system and it works for me. I think for a lot of people, especially Australian homeowners it is a sound economic and environmental investment.

[spydum]

|A 6.6 kW system installed retails at(AUD 2700 /USD 1870)

Is that right? Pretty sure in the US most kits that size are literally 10x that cost?

[zhoujianfu]

Yeah, or 20x? In LA I just got exactly that size installed from Tesla and I think it was about $35K? That did include one powerwall (they tried to suggest two but I realized with net metering even one only made sense for the fun of it).

[sgerenser]

Wow, hope the Powerwall was worth it. Recently got a quote for $16.5K for a 6KW grid-tie system installed (North Carolina, US). No batteries, but I’m pretty sure I’d come out way ahead just over sizing the array by 30-40% vs installing any sort of battery unless the prices come way down.

[mechagodzilla]

I just installed a 5kW system in NY, and after incentives it was about $6700.