[malshe]

Is this because of the labor costs in the US? In other countries the payback period is much shorter. Someone I know in Brazil told me it is 3-5 years for them.

On a related note, I asked my AC guy if he knows any trustworthy solar installers. He told me that only crooks are in that business :)

[phil21]

> On a related note, I asked my AC guy if he knows any trustworthy solar installers. He told me that only crooks are in that business

It's basically this.

There is very little robust competition in the solar installation market, and a lot of the market is a principle agent problem on top of it.

Almost all these solar installation firms targeted at residential are more or less financial engineering companies selling loans wrapped up with solar as an afterthought. They make all their money on the financing end.

I started to look into getting a highly customized solar+backup power setup done at my place, and I just gave up due to how difficult it was to find anyone to throw any amount of money at even when I never hoped to see a payback on the project. I just wanted it to ride out potential power outages.

If you can DIY you can get payback in under 5 years for many locations. But it's just a lot to learn to do perfectly the first time.

[malshe]

> Almost all these solar installation firms targeted at residential are more or less financial engineering companies selling loans wrapped up with solar as an afterthought. They make all their money on the financing end.

I agree. It's like car dealerships who are more interested in getting you on financing.

[sethhochberg]

In the US, there's often a large labor/materials upcharge on anything that can be branded as "green" - you see a lot of the same thing with higher end heat pump systems and such, too. Efficiency is (for whatever reasons) frequently sold as a luxury product feature in our market and the installers take advantage.

[mhb]

Or other countries could be paying more for electricity?

[malshe]

Yes it could be. But I checked the electricity price in Brazil and at $0.16 per kWh it is almost the same as what we pay in Texas.

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Brazil/electricity_prices...