I had imagined that solar panels without any moving parts would make free energy from the sun without any problems. However, that has not been my experience. Starting in the second year of ownership I have had an ongoing series of failures of micro inverters, panels or wiring and in the past few years a series of roof leaks as the Black Jack used to seal the racks dried out and failed.
To make matters worse, problems with the system have been hard to address because of the difficulty of finding a capable and willing repair company. Companies are much happier to install systems than repair them, and the cause has not always been obvious to whoever was trying to repair the system. There has been a continual stream of problems that all come down to installation (the roof leaks), wiring, and Enphase micro inverters. The micro inverters seemed to be failing with increasing regularly. During the first five years of ownership, the original installer worked with me to honor his 5 year warranty. He paid for the repairs from a series of fledging installers, but I had no control over the process nor the solutions he chose to implement.
Nothing seemed to solve the increasing number of problems. At the end of year five, the original installer bid me farewell and I was left to my own devises to try and solve my solar issues. Between years five and ten (this past May) I paid a total of $12,782 for repairs though all the Enphase modules were still covered under warrantee.
Concentric (and its predecessor firm) had been doing the solar repairs for me for the last few years and I was happy with their abilities. However, last summer when I had two panels not reporting, they were too busy with new installations to deal with a repair. After several attempt to try and schedule a repair, I decided to call back in the new year when the Tax credit stepped down. By January I had four failed Enphase Micro Inverters. Concentric was finally able to find the time to come out to replace them. The micro inverters were still under warrantee, but the labor to install them was not. Within two weeks of the replacement of the four, I had two other micro inverters not reporting. The lack of reliability has made the Enphase micro inverters very disappointing.
Apparently, Enphase knew this and offered all first generation purchasers (including me) a discount on the newest generation Enphase Modules. I pulled out my records of Enphase module failure and associated expense of replacing the failed modules. I discovered that in the previous four years I had paid $4,040 in labor alone to replace the failed modules which is by the way nearly what the value of the electricity the solar PV system produced over those four years. After several conversations Enphase decided to simply give me 32 micro inverters and a new Envoy unit to tie it all together for free, which was really nice. I paid NOVA Solar, a local installer with good references and at this point over a decade of experience, $5,000 to install the replacement parts. That was four weeks ago yesterday.
To make matters worse, problems with the system have been hard to address because of the difficulty of finding a capable and willing repair company. Companies are much happier to install systems than repair them, and the cause has not always been obvious to whoever was trying to repair the system. There has been a continual stream of problems that all come down to installation (the roof leaks), wiring, and Enphase micro inverters. The micro inverters seemed to be failing with increasing regularly. During the first five years of ownership, the original installer worked with me to honor his 5 year warranty. He paid for the repairs from a series of fledging installers, but I had no control over the process nor the solutions he chose to implement.
Nothing seemed to solve the increasing number of problems. At the end of year five, the original installer bid me farewell and I was left to my own devises to try and solve my solar issues. Between years five and ten (this past May) I paid a total of $12,782 for repairs though all the Enphase modules were still covered under warrantee.
Concentric (and its predecessor firm) had been doing the solar repairs for me for the last few years and I was happy with their abilities. However, last summer when I had two panels not reporting, they were too busy with new installations to deal with a repair. After several attempt to try and schedule a repair, I decided to call back in the new year when the Tax credit stepped down. By January I had four failed Enphase Micro Inverters. Concentric was finally able to find the time to come out to replace them. The micro inverters were still under warrantee, but the labor to install them was not. Within two weeks of the replacement of the four, I had two other micro inverters not reporting. The lack of reliability has made the Enphase micro inverters very disappointing.
Apparently, Enphase knew this and offered all first generation purchasers (including me) a discount on the newest generation Enphase Modules. I pulled out my records of Enphase module failure and associated expense of replacing the failed modules. I discovered that in the previous four years I had paid $4,040 in labor alone to replace the failed modules which is by the way nearly what the value of the electricity the solar PV system produced over those four years. After several conversations Enphase decided to simply give me 32 micro inverters and a new Envoy unit to tie it all together for free, which was really nice. I paid NOVA Solar, a local installer with good references and at this point over a decade of experience, $5,000 to install the replacement parts. That was four weeks ago yesterday.
For the first time in years I have all 32 solar panels reporting and functioning normally for the entire four weeks. I am hopeful that the system will be more reliable in the future, but I am weary of getting my hope too high and being disappointed again. Honestly, as troublesome and annoying as they’ve been, my solar panels still make financial sense. My system is just over 10 years old. When I signed the contract to purchase my roof mounted solar system in late 2009 the cost per kilowatt for the Sharp panels I bought was about $6,700 plus permits and installation. However, back in 2009 I was able to obtain a state rebate of $12,000. I also used the 30% federal tax credit which was recently stepped down. The net cost of the solar system in 2010 after rebates and tax credits was $32,578.
In addition, I obtained a property tax exemption in Prince William County (and most counties in Virginia). The exemption is based on the Energy Efficient Buildings Tax Exemption (Code of VA §58.1-3221.2) which allows any county, city, or town to exempt or partially exempt energy efficient buildings from local property taxes. In Prince William County the amount of the exemption is based on the installed cost of solar array. That translated to a savings of $656.82 a year for 5 years. I have one more year of the tax credit.
The largest portion of the return is from something called a SREC, a solar renewable energy credit. A SREC is a credit for each megawatt hours of electricity that is produced, but used elsewhere. SRECs have value only because some states have solar set asides from their Renewable Portfolio Standards, RPS, which require that a portion of energy produced by a utility be produced by renewable power. There are currently no RPS solar requirements in Virginia, thus no value to SRECs in Virginia today beyond the $10-$15 that a RPS credit is worth, though that may change under the new Clean Energy Virginia laws.
When I installed my solar panels, my system was eligible to sell SRECs in Pennsylvania and Washington DC and I registered my system in both markets. The Pennsylvania market has since collapsed, but the District of Columbia passed a law in 2011 which made the SRECs quite valuable. The law prevents out-of-state systems from registering after January 31st 2011, but my system was grandfathered. DC is currently the only under-supplied SREC market in the nation There ae no large commercial solar farms, no large industrial installations. Thanks to the Washington DC SREC market my solar panels have earned $33,329.29 (after fees but before taxes), dwarfing the $11,800 in free energy they have produced. Even with a total of $12,782 I have paid out of pocket in repairs (more than the total value of the electricity produced), the system has paid for itself and I am more than $2,000 cash positive on the project so far with everything working.
In addition, I obtained a property tax exemption in Prince William County (and most counties in Virginia). The exemption is based on the Energy Efficient Buildings Tax Exemption (Code of VA §58.1-3221.2) which allows any county, city, or town to exempt or partially exempt energy efficient buildings from local property taxes. In Prince William County the amount of the exemption is based on the installed cost of solar array. That translated to a savings of $656.82 a year for 5 years. I have one more year of the tax credit.
The largest portion of the return is from something called a SREC, a solar renewable energy credit. A SREC is a credit for each megawatt hours of electricity that is produced, but used elsewhere. SRECs have value only because some states have solar set asides from their Renewable Portfolio Standards, RPS, which require that a portion of energy produced by a utility be produced by renewable power. There are currently no RPS solar requirements in Virginia, thus no value to SRECs in Virginia today beyond the $10-$15 that a RPS credit is worth, though that may change under the new Clean Energy Virginia laws.
When I installed my solar panels, my system was eligible to sell SRECs in Pennsylvania and Washington DC and I registered my system in both markets. The Pennsylvania market has since collapsed, but the District of Columbia passed a law in 2011 which made the SRECs quite valuable. The law prevents out-of-state systems from registering after January 31st 2011, but my system was grandfathered. DC is currently the only under-supplied SREC market in the nation There ae no large commercial solar farms, no large industrial installations. Thanks to the Washington DC SREC market my solar panels have earned $33,329.29 (after fees but before taxes), dwarfing the $11,800 in free energy they have produced. Even with a total of $12,782 I have paid out of pocket in repairs (more than the total value of the electricity produced), the system has paid for itself and I am more than $2,000 cash positive on the project so far with everything working.
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| The Costs of My Solar |
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