[alabastervlog]

Installed?!

Just the electrician's part would be a good chunk of the $5k, where we live (East coast US) before you even get into placing the panels themselves.

I keep seeing cheap panel costs with a "look, now you can afford it!" thing, but for those of us who may be handy but aren't quite willing to do high-power lines & boxes, or confident bolting steel to a roof without either killing ourselves or ruining the roof, the labor costs continue to be very high, and that part's not going down. From what I'm seeing for online "average costs for 10kw in your area" I'd hesitate to pull the trigger even if it were $5k lower than it is, which would probably be an even bigger discount than if the panels and other hardware were simply free.

[testing22321]

Yes, installed with a bit of diy. Licensed solar installer and myself did most of the work. Electrician to actually wire into the house panel was $125 for 1 hour. Permits were $36.

[_jules]

As one who went diy in your region - keep calling electricians, you'll eventually find one who'll do the job at a fair price. With micro-inverters, there's no power in the lines till you connect into the main panel & you can work that our with a licensed electrician.

[alabastervlog]

Very good info, thanks.

[klipt]

Probably helps the Canadian government isn't trying to tariff solar power in the hopes of promoting "beautiful clean coal" instead

[bawolff]

Canada does actually apply significant tarrifs to chinese solar panel companies

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/sima-lmsi/mif-mev/sml-eng.html

[alabastervlog]

I mean, yes, separately that's going to put solar plans on hold for a lot of people in the US. I just meant that labor costs alone already tended to easily exceed $5k for rooftop solar projects in the US, so I was surprised at that price for that much solar.

[prawn]

10kW in South Australia would cost about US$4,990, installed.

https://www.solarchoice.net.au/solar-panels/solar-power-syst...

When we had ours installed on a previous house, the roof installation itself was very fast - couple of hours maybe.

Beyond this, state and council/county authorities often have rebates/incentives to encourage take-up of panels and/or battery systems. Our council (county equivalent, I guess) has had group-buy initiatives, as one example, and a virtual power plant scheme.

[cogman10]

Back in the first Trump presidency, there was a 30% tariff on solar panels and equipment, which has significantly increased the price of going solar in the US.

Couple that with the fact that Canada very likely has subsidies for people adopting solar power.

[lenkite]

Doesn't Canada have 150%+ import duty on solar panels from China ?