On Tuesday, December 31, 2019 at 12:09:25 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Do the math, if you can. US $20,000 gets you 6.6 KW of "nameplate", exclusive of land. Make it 7.

7 x 6,000 = 42 KWH per day.
42 X $0.14 = $5.88.

Assume 'perfect' sun every day. Making 365 x 5.88 = $2,146.20 = 9.32 years before payback on a straight-line calculation. Which carefully avoids the concept of Time-Value of Money. On a monthly basis, that comes to $178..85. If you borrow money at 3.5% (unlikely for a solar project with $0 residual value), that would come in at $115.99 per month. Given an actual payback (time-value of money) of 62.86 per month, or 26 years, 7 months. Roughly six (6) years beyond the useful life of the installation.

Had you invested that same $20,000 at that same 3.5% for that same 20 years, on the assumption that you have that much cash lying around, you would have $39,795.78 in 20 years.

NOTE: None of the above counts any sort of maintenance. Such as cutting the grass, scrub or whatever underneath the panels, cleaning the panels - which needs to be done. Snow removal if relevant. Bad days, rain, clouds, nor any other adverse conditions. Equipment servicing - Grid-Tie inverters need regular servicing and certification. And so forth.

One last myth: Appreciation of property - 20,000 watts of panels will take 67 panels at 300 watts per each (optimistic). Each panel is 2 square meters - very roughly 10 square feet. 670 square feet is, again, very roughly 26 feet square. Not one helluva lot of land to appreciate. And an installation that small will hardly generate the material discounts that a Utility-Scale installation will command. But, for you, we are ignoring the hard truths, while looking only at the raw, optimistic numbers.

Solar, without subsidies is a bad deal. Full stop.
Solar with subsidies is a bad deal for the taxpayers. Full stop.
Solar, with or without subsidies is a bad deal for the Planet. Full stop.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Correction, 18 square feet per panel, so roughly 35 feet square of land.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA