http://www.solardave.com/index.php/solar-system-payback-in-colorado-video/
SolarDave: My friend’s system, which is 4 Kilo Watt system which seems to be an average size system, in Colorado how long until his system starts to payback?

Cary Hayes: Your friend’s system at 4KW, which means 4 thousand watts of DC power, that system with a excellent rule for thumb for every one kilo watt of power will produces about 125 kilo watt hours per month in Colorado, face some direction south and a excellent pitch angle.

His initial capital outlay will be repaying some where around 10 to 15 years. Now the payback on a solar system comes down to a variety of factors but the number one factor is electricity rates.

The electricity rates right now in Colorado for what Xcel charges is about 9.5 cents per kilo watt hour, what Xcel charges…

SolarDave: That is pretty cheap.

Cary Hayes: Some of the cheapest in the country. Compared to California, Hawaii, east coast, Chicago, from a nationwide perspective it is really cheap.

Xcel has questioned for a 15% rate increase this summer that was just announced a few weeks ago, and we look back at the Xcel rates over the last 20 or 30 years, Xcel has raised rates 4.25% to 4.5% each year over the last say 30 years.

Historical average increases for this country are around 5.5% increase per year. So slightly more than inflation.

What we are starting to see in Xcel territory and other electricity vendors out there is the rise in cost of electricity. Rates are going up quicker than the historic norm’s have been for a variety of reasons, increase energy costs across the board cost of gas, oil, coal.

It is honest to make the assumption that the costs are going to go up, it is a question of how quick. As the go up the payback on the solar system starts condensing. So if you are offsetting 9.5 cent kilo watt power today, rates go up 15% this year, 13% the following year, 5 years from now the cost might be 15 cents per kilo watt hour. Now you are offsetting 15 cents a kilo watt hour, which means you are saving that much more, which means you payback gets condensed.

So I reckon it is honest assumption to say in Colorado that a residential solar system will have a ten year payback. That is probably what we will end up with when we are all said and done.

Duration : 0:3:3

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Eric Bowman: There are a lot of things that solar panel costs, volume, quality, there are a lot of components to it, we are the only solar intergrator that has developed our own propiritory panel so we outsource the manufacturing of that to SunTech which at the end of this year will be the largest manufacturer in the world.

They only make the Andalay solar panel for Akeena and Akeena only. It is our patent and our panel noboby can source the panel or install in the panel in the United States.

Because we are a very large solar intergator, one of the largest and we are publicly held and we are on the NASDAQ:AKNS because we only sell that one type of panel for that residentail application our volume is not like a Sharp or a BP that might sell to multiple brokers across the United States.

But we are extremely competitive when it comes to cost and value proposition, realiablity, aestecis and cost. Our clients get a win all the time.

Here is a small mock up of the Andalay panel the largest difference you are going to see between the Andalay panel and any other panel in the past 30 years including everything that is being installed today, a traditional panel has aluminum racking and a non structural panel that sits on top of that, the wires are connected together and there is a perimeter ground system around that has to go around.

So what we have done for our clients over 2,000 installations in the last 5 years for residential systems they wanted something that looked a small bit better and had a higher reliability over time and what we have done it integrate the actual aluminum racking right in to the module, so the module is structural therfore you do not need any extra aluminum racking. What we have done is take this turn buckle in the top and other one in the bottom.

Then you take the other module and you snap it together you tighten up the turn buckle that draws the panels together so that provides only a 1/8″ gap. Now you have a structural connection at the top and at the bottom and you have redundant grounding which gives us less ground faults, and it looks a lot better and it sits flush with the roof. And it has been a huge winner I would say everyone that has bought this system in Colorado has done it either for the aesthetics or the reliability and it is one of the few non comonitized panels on the market.

Duration : 0:3:1

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SolarDave: Are Solar Panels Going To 300 Watts Soon?

John Shaw: Absolutely, any manufacturer can do that right now. You shouldn’t really look at how many watts a panel has – rather how many watts per square foot can be attained. Behind you is a Sanyo 200, if you increase the foot print of that panel by 50% it is a 300 watt panel. The reality is what you need to be looking at to measure the level of progress of the technology is how many watts per square foot.

Instead of thinking will there ever be a 300 watt panel – surely there will be even next year. To get at the point of your question is do you ever reckon we will be ever to achieve a 300 watt panel in 15 square feet?

And yes, I do. Right now standard efficiency panels are in the ballpark of about 12 watts per square foot, it ranges from 10 to 13. Standard efficiency panels Evergreens, Sharps, Kyocera, Shot (?), Suntech etc.

Keep in mind this is the residential affordable panels, NASA works with panels that are about 30 watts per square foot but you are talking a million bucks a panel.

Then there are high efficiency panels of the ones we know of are SunPower and Sanyo. And Sunpower and Sanyo are approximately 15 watts per square foot. Both are very excellent products.

Sanyo I believe has a small bit of an edge because they has an amorphous or thin film rap around the silicon cell which allows them to maintain high production in high heat. One more reason and I will tie this in.

The Sanyo’s are shipped with a minus 0 and a plus 5 percent so when you buy a 200 watt Sanyo panel you will get hypothetically in standard test conditions 75 degrees at sea level you will get 200 watts or up to 210 watts.

All other panels including specifically Sunpower are + or – 5%, so you could buy a 210 watt Sunpower cell and it could really perform at 199 watts where you could buy a 200 watt Sanyo cell it could perform at 210 watts, but no less than 200 watts.

So that and the fact the Sanyo’s will out perform Sunpower apples to apples same azimuth and pitch in high heat because of this amorphous or thin film rap 10% in high heat peak days peak hours – we feel Sanyo is a better panel.

But I have to say that Sanyo’s are more expensive than Sunpower. We can’t touch the Sunpower price, we can touch it with standard efficiency panels – blow it out of the water with standard efficiency panels. But if you are talking about high efficiency panels and high efficiency I reckon Sanyo is a better panel but the Sunpower is definately a better price.

Duration : 0:3:25

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Duration : 0:2:51

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SolarDave: What manufacturer do you like to use for solar panels and why?

Tony Boniface: We prefer SunPower because for a couple of reasons, one is their efficiency – they are the most efficient panel, also they are all black with also lends for a nice aesthetic attribute. Black seems to blend in to the houses the best, we found they kind of disappear.

Those are the two main reason, but SunPower has made a huge effort to counter where the industry has been fits and starts they force dealers to traditionally forced to inventory panels, SunPower is all about just-in-time delivery. So it makes a difference from a cash flow point. For a small business that can be critical.

They are (SunPower) are very interested in growing their market share and they realize the one way to do that is to make our market share grow – they know and cater to the small business both from an inventory stand point and a marketing materials stand point and sales department and training. So they do a really excellent job of assisting there dealers where ever possible.

SolarDave: What other panels do you like to use?

Tony Boniface: By request of on occasion if we can’t get what we need from SunPower we for a particular project we may fall to EverGreen or Kyocera for instance – both excellent makers, EverGreen has the advantage of they are an American company.

Kyocera in my opinion has been in the industry the longest and has stayed the course. They are also a materials company they make ceramics glasses and so forth so I reckon the quality is very high.

SolarDave: What SunPower models do you like to use the best?

Tony Boniface: SunPower likes to minimize the number of models they had. If they could have come out with just one they would have. They try to avoid scope creep as the more models they have they more people you have to keep tabs on.

They have two models a high efficiency the white module with the white backing and they have the slightly less effiencent model which is the all black (loss a small efficiency) right now it is the 230 watt the white one and the 225 watt is the black. That SunPower 225 watt has changed though because the process has become more efficient in the cells – it used to be the SunPower model 205 and 210 then 215 220 and now it is the 225 and 230. So it is pretty typical in the industry as the manufacturers are getting the efficiencies up.

Duration : 0:3:9

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