Condo boards immediatelly drafting bylaws for preserving balcony appearence to protect property values.
I wager most already have such clauses in place. Mine explicitly prohibits anything other than patio furniture.
Muh quiet enjoyment!!!
Absolute easy here in Europe. Got two sets, installed them on the south wall (we have no balcony), and now we get up to 700W, usually 2-3kWh per day.
Based on the cost of electricity in Canada, it would likely take over 10 years to pay off a balcony power system: https://solarenergies.ca/balcony-solar-panels-in-canada/
Cool. Solar panels produce near 100% power until they are 30 years old, which is when they drop to about 80% efficiency.
They pay out at about 10% a year and produce something useful. That’s a great investment that just keeps going.
I believe in unicorns and solar panels that last over 15 years.
You should let us know about the unicorns, because solar panels are absolutely lasting 30+ years. Tons of data is coming in on 30 yr solar panels right now. This article is 4 days old and confirms the above:
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/renewable-energy-ecology/old-solar-panels-still-work/
Agreed, Solar is not nearly as good in Canada compared to a lot of other countries.
We (mostly) have cheaper power AND we have less sunlight.
Germany has an average residential price for electricity around $0.60 CDN per kWh. Meanwhile I pay $0.145 per kWh in BC.
AND we have less sunlight.
Perhaps in BC, yes, but the rest of Canada has higher solar potential than much of Europe.
Canada isn’t just a strip along the US border… “Most” of Canada has lower solar potential than Europe.
It’s irrelevant though, the electricity price is by far the largest factor in it being such a weak investment here.
Ah yes, my mistake, we should definitely be considering the solar PV that’s going to be serving the grid in unpopulated parts of the country.
Still, my statement is still true when considering the north.
Those unpopulated areas actually make the most sense for solar PV in Canada, they often either don’t have electricity at all, or are using very expensive sources of electricity (like gas/diesel generators)
Here’s the problem I’m having. For any of the places along the southern border of Canada, where electricity is cheap as fuck (fuck you Alberta and Saskatchewan), the payback costs on Solar PV (especially at the house scale) are essentially non-existent.
So for now, we should let other countries(along with Alberta and Saskatchewan) buy and install those panels and not have to compete with the rest of the country (which lowers the prices) for the currently limited supply of available panels.
We can install some in those other places in 20-30 years when the tech has gotten even cheaper and it finally does become viable financially.
It’s not like BC, Ontario, and Quebec’s electricity generation is particularly carbon intense, the are all under 10% fossil fuels already. It’s almost all renewables or nuclear as it is.
AB and SK have among the higher electricity rates across all the provinces, but not by a considerable amount.
I agree, solar (with storage) does make sense for a community not connected to the grid and using generators locally, but a community being there thus makes it a populated place.
Is there a shortage of panels? I had no trouble getting mine and there’s been no indication from suppliers that stock is limited.
The average cost of electricity in Alberta is almost twice the value for BC. When doing a calculation for something like solar investment, that’s a huge difference.
Production of solar panels is reasonable right now, but still limited compared to the potential demand which is why there’s so much investment in new capacity. It’s not that panels are unavailable, but there aren’t just millions of panels laying around uninstalled either. They’re rolling off the line, getting transported, and then getting installed.
The scale of “let’s do this for the country” even with Canada being relatively small would end up impacting prices globally.
Most of Canada lives within 100km of the US border.
Most Canadians do, most of Canada is not…
Solar is not nearly as good in Canada compared to a lot of other countries.
Of course, “not as good” doesn’t mean “is totally useless” either.
Toronto is at the same latitude as Rome.
Rome has a residential electricity price of 0.35 Euros per kwh, which is about $0.50 cdn. Torontos midpeak price per kwh is 12.2 cents.
The latitude doesn’t matter when the price of electricity is literally one fourth of the amount.
There isn’t even a 4x difference between the north pole and the equator for solar irradiation.
10 years is reasonable. 100% total return in 20 years. Pairing with power station provides portable power benefits, ups, grid backup, amping solutions, and time shifting increased use and larger systems.
Many traditional investments have resulted in worse performance than drinking beer and returning empties.
So convenient and low risk can make it attractive.
Those panels, inverters, etc, will not last 20 years and the fly by night companies that sell them are gone in under 5 years.
ultra light panels don’t have a longevity track record and are extremely prone to deterioration when heat is trapped behind them. The cheaper, but heavier framed rooftop panels now can be warrantied for 30 years agains degradation, and unless physically damaged have little reason to take them down after 60 years. LiFePo batteries (cheaper than original lithium) charged once per day, they can last 30 years too.
It’s a fair point that chargers and inverters will fail within 10 years or so. If going with LiFePo power station, they might need repair/part replacements, or you can recycle(paid for) the power station that stopped functioning. Power stations can provide value by bunding useful simple connections to a battery in a nice and portable case.
It’s a matter of scale to have repair/recycling local industry. Home Depot or other stores not having a large solar/battery section means its less popular, and shipping a bigger portion of costs.
While I welcome this sort of development, but without a safe and cheap way to store that power, the usefulness is limited. Most people aren’t home during the day.
Correct, but most people also use a lot of latent power ( fridge, icebox, heat pump, air circulation, … ) but yes, not as much as being generated sometimes.
I understand that a lot of people ( in germany, netherlands and belgium ) install a battery to store that power, or use automation to limit the generated power to match the used power. You can do this with a smart meter, p1 cable and home assistant.
Personally, my one panel of 440W is more than enough. At average it generates enough to cover my usage at home ( when sunny ) and my usage when not home ( when cloudy ). And imo, every watt i generate is a watt im not paying for :')Doesnt take away i believe that injecting power into the grid should cost you something, but it should be peanuts ( 0.001c per kW or something )
Most important for canada is lower fixed monthly chages in exchange for higher use rates, and less permit bs from monopolies. Freedom to disconnect critical for respect to consumers.
Toronto hydro has $50 foxed charge. Per kwh charges about 15$ per person.
With that said, you don’t need to pair balcon y solar into home wiring. Can plug into power stations. Extention cords for the room, charge extra power stations to bring to other rooms or for travel.
Power stations are ups, which is handy for desktops.
Due to regulations it would be cheaper to have separate utility panel wiring to fewer places and home solar wiring.
