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Originally Posted by Azure
Great news, and I think the pace would be even higher if regulations were setup to encourage home owners, small business and even corporations to invest in solar.
Been reading a bit about solar paybacks in Alberta compared to Manitoba, and I honestly can't wrap my head around why on earth anyone would invest $1 in solar energy in Manitoba when Manitoba Hydro absolutely does not pay you a fair rate for what you put back into the grid.
Stuff like that has to change in order to encourage people to invest. Even businesses.
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Solar incentives are great, but to be honest in most places they're unnecessary and can be counter productive even. It's extremely variable depending on where it is.
For example, in most of UK and Europe the cost of electricity is so high that roof top PV with a battery pays off within 2-3 years with zero incentives. In BC, electricity is so cheap that despite generous net metering and federal incentives my newly installed panels will take 10+years to pay off if you don't include potential home price increases.
On the counterproductive side, generous rooftop solar incentives including net metering in the Netherlands have led to 30% of homes having panels and negative pricing leading to electricity companies losing their shirts. So far this year there's been well over 100 negative pricing hours and there was even a few hours where consumers were paid $0.33/kW to use electricity! I think policies need to be flexible and there can't be a one size fits all solution or you either delay or destroy the momentum altogether