Why Solar Panels Don't Work

 

Oh, yes.  Buy these solar panels, stick them on your roof, and lay back and enjoy free energy.  Put your middle finger up to your energy supplier.

 

What they never tell you is the REAL mathematics.  Solar panels take years to pay your money back (that you spent buying them) if ever at all.  Typically, any system with batteries will NEVER pay your money back.  I say again, that's on a TYPICAL basis, not by some bloke who posts on YouTube and swears that his set up is saving so much money that he is richer than a dentist.  We have to talk ‘typical’ because it’s the only thing we can all go by.  They will typically COST you money that you’ll NEVER see back.  But first of all, I’m going to show you an email I sent to a solar panel company who, surprise, surprise, never emailed me back.

 

“Your 4kW solar & battery system costs around £11,500 to buy and install.

This system will produce around 3,400 kW per year on average.

At 21p/kWh that would be a saving per year of £714

If I sell the electricity to Octopus, I’ll get an average annual income of £350 – so I can see straight away that it is better to use that energy, rather than sell it.

I can also see that if I divide the capital cost £11,500 by the annual savings of £714 that is a payback period of 16 years.

The £11,500 I had in the bank was earning 3% interest – which I’ve now wiped out.  That was £345 a year…which I'm now losing. So before I can look at any savings, I am already down – by £345.  The ‘saving’ of £714 must have £345 deducted.  I'm down to £369 – that is the actual annual saving.  £11,500 divided by £369 is a payback period of 31 years.

I also have to take into account that the batteries will need replacing in (at least) 15 years’ time.  That’s a cost (today) of around £2,500 and also a new inverter, £1,200 – so that’s £246 a year that I should be setting aside.  My saving is now down to £123 a year.

Over its life, a solar panel array will need maintenance and servicing, from cleaning to part replacements.  This is thought to be on average £160 a year, but we’ll be generous and say it’s only £123.  My saving is now wiped out and my solar array will NEVER payback, in fact, it may well COST me money.  The above is your own data, so why would I want a solar array?”

 

As I said, they never bothered me with a reply.  After all, what could they say?...  “Yep, you got us there!”  They certainly couldn’t argue with the mathematics, as the information came from their own website!  The bit that people forget is the lost interest on the capital paid out for the solar panels.  That £345 really puts a dent in any alleged ‘savings’.  Once that’s taken into account, your payback period – stretching out to 31 years – puts it way beyond the actual life of the panels, so there will NEVER be a return on your money, even before you take replacement batteries and inverters into account.

 

There's a new kid on the block in the shape of 'plug-in' solar panels.  This means that you don't need any installer, nor any inspection.  You buy a plug-in solar kit, literally plug it in, and wait for your cost (your capital expenditure) to be paid back.

And you wait.

And you wait.

These kits are much cheaper because they don't require any installers or electricians (well, technically, they do for final connection).  They are an easy DIY fit.  So let's look at the maths for these.

The company which priced a set-up for my house quoted me £4,314.

They said it would save me 3,504 kWh worth of electricity every year - worth £735 (at 21p/kWh).

So it LOOKS like we just divide £4,314 by £735 to give a payback period of almost six years.  Not bad.  Except it isn't true.  Again, it takes no account of the loss of interest on the £4,314 I would have to pay out.  That sum is earning me £129 in interest at my bank.  If I remove it from the bank to pay their invoice, I'm £129 DOWN every year.  So £129 has to be removed from the annual savings!  It isn't rocket science, is it, and yet they purposefully ignore it.  Therefore, the actual saving isn't £735 but in actual fact, £606.

 

£4,314 divided by £606 is seven years...to get my money back.  From then on, I am getting free electric, right?  Not so fast.  What they fail to tell everyone is that you MUST use the power which is being generated by the panels - average of 9.6 kW a day - as it is being generated on your roof, or you'll lose it.  As it is plugged in to your entire electric circuit, it won't go anywhere or do anything.  Imagine a typical summers day when your panels might be going flat out (they don't do much in winter!) and maybe offering you 15 kW.  That's no good if you can't use it up on your dishwasher, washing machine, iron, hot water heating, or watching some gimp celebrity making a cake while dancing on ice.  Much of it will simply, literally, go to waste.

 

So even the power you can generate isn't paying you back in 7 years, in actuality.  That could well stretch out to 10, 12, or even 15 years, easy.  If, and only if, your electricity meter ran backwards every time the generated power couldn't be used on something, then this would be viable.  7 years to get your money back isn't terrible.  But only some old meters will do this, most won't.  So without that option (to turn your meter digits backwards) then this is simply another chance of wasting your money.  Until the solar industry sorts itself out and starts being honest, it can be seen as nothing other than a con job - a way of fleecing you of your money.  Frankly, it gives the air of confidence tricksters about it.

 

The company I was talking to tried to allay my fears by offering a £320 bit of kit to wire into my hot water tank immersion heater.  They said that this would divert the power to my tank, instead.  I pointed out that very often it won't do anything of the sort.  If the immersion heater thermostat has switched off (satisfied), then again, there's nowhere for it to go.  It will only divert power when the immersion heater is calling for heat.  That is only for a fraction of the day.  And there's another £320 to remove from your savings, also.

 

Although I titled this 'Why solar doesn't work', I should point out that if you could use ALL that your panels provide when they provide it, then they DO work, and may pay you your investment costs back in seven years.  But in order to be able to use up all that they can provide, your electricity consumption needs to be considerable.  And you still need to size it right, because you would need to opt for a small system to ensure you are using it all.  The vast majority of people use just 7 kWh a day, even less in the months when solar panels work best!  And due to economies of scale, the smaller solar set-ups are the most expensive, so your 7-year payback isn't going to happen - more like 10-12 years.  The only way you can be sure of making a 'profit' is if someone gifts you a plug-in solar set-up.  But don't think that you have that when you buy a new house with panels on the roof...they have just been added to the house price.  And such is the cost of replacement batteries and inverters, EVEN IF someone gifts you such a set-up, it could be that the system will cost you more than it generates!

 

The sad fact is that solar panels are yet another bullshit scheme to make you part with your money, with false promises and downright lies.  Yes, thanks to both Labour and the Conservatives, Britain has the highest electricity prices in the world - and they keep going up because Ed Miliband is stark raving insane with his Net Zero crap.  And yet it STILL doesn't work out!  When we go back to gas and abandon wind and solar (which we will), electricity prices will fall, and this will make solar panels even less attractive.

 

Don't fall for the hype - typically, it's still cheaper to buy your electric from an energy supplier than put Chinese solar panels on your roof.  On that point, if you want an example of sheer madness, here it is...

Australia sells coal to China.  China uses the coal to manufacture solar panels which it sells to Australia for Australians to put on their roofs to generate power...because coal (which they might otherwise use - their own coal!!!) would mean CO2 emissions.  Let's ignore that China emits the carbon dioxide INSTEAD of Australia!!!  You couldn't make up the absurdity if you tried.  And here's another...

 

Above 35 degrees of latitude north or south of the globe, the amount of energy you need for a solar panel to be built, manufactured, mined, etc, is greater than the total amount of energy that a solar panel will produce through 25 years of lifespan.  35 degrees latitude (north and south) is from anywhere north of Gibraltar (southern Spain) to south of South Africa.  It means virtually all of the US and of course Canada, all of Europe and Russia, New Zealand, and half of Argentina – even virtually all of Japan and half of China...solar panels are pointless (at reducing CO2 emissions).

 

They are only viable in countries which are already warm...and generally don't require central heating.  They may, of course, be used to run air conditioning units, instead.

 

It's a crazy world, isn't it?