05-04-2015, 08:34 AM
Strife Wrote:Musk is definitely the right person to head this, and it's definitely a good step, but... from what I'm reading, it's still going to be too expensive for your everyday person. I don't know the exact costs of getting solar panels set up, but my quick google search said 50k for the standard as it is right now that doesn't store energy. Add $10,000 in batteries(1 battery probably isn't enough for most people), which is probably a low estimate with installation and everything, and you're up to 60k. The batteries from what I've read, may last 10k cycles, which is about 28 years doing a cycle a day. So 60k for something that will last 30 years. How many regular people buy a house and stay in their house for 30 years? I'm guessing not many. Why are they going to invest 60k in a house that basically requires them to stay in their house for 30 years to get their moneys worth. Even if that 60k is the last dime I spend on electricity for 30 years, it's still only mildly cheaper than paying for non-green energy. That's $2000 a year if I paid the 60k in cash and didn't finance it. Last year I paid (roughly) $2500 for electricity.
There is a lot of pricing models and with leasing and tax credits you can easily get them with no downpayment or anything and still save some money.
My primary concern would be them looking like shit.