Solar Panels

Owning a house in San Diego, one of the popular things to add are solar panels. Plenty of sun and lower solar costs has resulted in wider adoption and California will actually require all new homes to have solar panels in two years.

Solar's growth has been tremendous (~30% in 2017, ~49% in 2016). China is the dominant player adding ~53 GW of power in 2017 (~53% of global total) vs US adding ~11GW of power in 2017. With costs coming down drastically in the past few years, it's become more "in the money" to switch to solar. Government has has also helped. The US has a 30% tax credit for and China has provided generous subsidies.

Getting quotes now but estimated usage for us is 15,000 kwh per year which at ~20 cents/kwh (SDGE retail rate) would cost ~3k per year.

Installing panels to offset that would cost ~22k after tax credit so breakeven would be ~7 years. Assuming constant 3k of electricity savings per year and 0 residual value on the solar panel after 25 years, irr of installing panel is ~13%, not a bad return on capital for 25 years.