Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
No, my point was they are useless when your saying "use solar, and store it in batteries" when the solar can't give you any energy to put in the batteries. As a combined 1-2 solution, it still doesn't work in January around here. In a place with stable summer/winter lengths of days? Sure, it can be a solution that works. But we can't store all that summer sunlight for winter. I'd love it if we could!
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Is solar even feasible with the Canadian prices for power?
Not sure what the price of power is in Alberta these days, but my understanding is that it needs to be at least $.16 to .$20 per kWh in order for solar/battery to start making sense.
Its hard to keep track though as the cost of solar is continually dropping, plus you have government rebates which often clock in at 50% of project cost.
I know Manitoba Hydro was offering up to 50% of your money back on solar installation up to 200kW. I know a lot of people who took advantage of it, but even with those numbers the return is still at least 10-14 years in our climate and location.
The bigger question is taking advantage of peak costs. The 200kW systems all just feed back into the system to make the meter run backwards, and at peak hours (4PM to 10PM) they shave your peak, or at least attempt to shave. Not sure exactly what peak costs are, but from what I understand you pay what your peak is, not what your average usage is.
A battery system that can take power from solar & the grid during non-peak hours, and store it to use during peak hours, something the Powerwall 2 is easily setup to do, the ROI might be greater. But, from what I understand even there it only works if you pay over a certain amount for electricity.
Definitely would be interesting to read other people's experience with solar & batteries in Canada.