tim.... wrote:
"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...
Last time I looked at solar panel threads there was an overwhelming view
that it just didn't make financial sense and the calculations generally
didn't take into account the fact that you had to recover your capital and
the interest on your capital (if you just saved/invested it) to break
even, before you started to make any savings.

Now the recent discussion seems to be more about the immoral use of the
subsidies than about the sums not adding up.

When did this change?

I don't think it did.

ISTM that the people who think that "the sums don't add up" still think
that.

No, the sums still don't add up for solar water heating.

They only add up for PV because the electricity from a PV panel is sold
at over ten times what its worth, cost paid by the rest of electricity
consumers.

In fact its sold for more than it costs to generate with a diesel generator.

Which is where a lot of 'solar electricity' actually comes from, allegedly.



The fact that commercial operations think otherwise suggest that the
negative opinions are formed from out of date data.

No, the unbleiveable FITS have been scrapped by DECC. Only domestic
installations will now attract these exorbitant gifts. This has killed
all commercial PV in this country stone dead, if they don't get it in by
IIRC July.


I certainly see people
make comments such as this is "immature" technology when in fact PV cells
were invented more than 30 years ago and the technology is anything but
immature.


The classic comment was in some blog somewhere where when quizzed by a
someone a minister or green spokesperson allegedly said she supported PV
FITS because it was an immature unproven technology. At some later point
he asks why thorium reactor research was not being given grants 'because
its an unproven immature technology' was the alarming reply..


Having said that, it still seems to me that on most "at the coal face"
quotes the finances are marginal, but I suspect that this is more down to
the installers inflating the installation costs whilst using smoke and
mirrors to make the profits seem larger than they are at that cost, just
like they always do with "home improvement" installations, but unlike other
home improvements this one lives and dies on its financial benefits as the
other "user" benefits are zero.

If I had a suitable roof, I wouldn't enter into any deal other than one
where the installer takes all of the risk. If you can't get someone to
offer you a deal on that basis then you know that any "purchased"
installation is being oversold


There is no doubt that PV panels at today's tarriffs are extremely
profitable. Payback is in months, not years. So you wont be out of
pocket even if they only last a couple of years.

But that is a symptom of politics, not the technology.