How much value does a solar installation add to a property? It’s a question increasingly on the minds of consumers who are interested in the cost-benefit analysis of residential solar installations, also known as photovoltaic systems. If you haven’t already sold a property with solar panels, you probably will soon, so it’s important to understand the industry pitches and the potential gains for homeowners and investors.
Currently, the U.S. has 2 million solar PV residential and commercial installations, up from 1 million three years ago, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The total is expected to reach 3 million by 2021.
The growing interest in solar installations is easy to understand. “A lot of people like the idea that, number one, they’re going to be paying less for electricity, and number two, they’re locking in the price for electricity; they know exactly what they’re going to pay for electricity for the next 20 [or] 30 years,” says Vikram Aggarwal, CEO of EnergySage, a website that screens PV system installers and allows homeowners and businesses to request competitive quotes.
Once a system is installed, a homeowner typically pays a small monthly charge to be connected to the utility. This means they can divide the cost of the system by the monthly cost they have been paying for electricity to find out how long it will take to break even; after that, the savings continue indefinitely. For example, if homeowners have a monthly $215 electric bill, and $15 of that is the connection to the utility, they can install a PV system costing $15,000 to save $200 per month and pay off the cost of the solar installation in just over six years.
In parts of the country where power outages are common, solar installations with battery storage have an additional appeal because homeowners can store electricity for times when the grid is down. Battery storage is growing in popularity in California, the top state for solar installations, where concern over wildfires has caused utilities to repeatedly shut off power, and in Florida and Texas, where hurricanes led to power outages.
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Source: Realtor Magazine
