Rayton's new super-efficient, affordable solar panels could trump fossil fuels

[Lory 6]

It's not just about the bloody solar panels.

 

It's all the battery gubbins and electronics to monitor and regulate, and all the other tra-la-la that comes with being off the grid, or self sufficient, and that shit is expensive.

 

The solar panels are just the car body without the engine.

Thats' absolutely true!

You can choose to get a miserable 5 pesos selling your excess electricity in a on-grid system (just the generationn charge) still paying the consumed one twice this price.

  Or you can  get messed with batteries and controllers being off-grid...in both cases the costs of your solar system  will grow much higher than the the panels themselves...

[Paul 55,114]

Thats' absolutely true!

You can choose to get a miserable 5 pesos selling your excess electricity in a on-grid system (just the generationn charge) still paying the consumed one twice this price.

  Or you can  get messed with batteries and controllers being off-grid...in both cases the costs of your solar system  will grow much higher than the the panels themselves...

 

Well, before, the panels were the most costly part of the system (off-grid). Now, it is the batteries. 

 

Either way, on an off-grid system, you are still producing more stable, reliable, and clean power than you will get from any energy company in the Philippines. 

 

For similar reasons, I went solar in Cambodia. While it doesn't provide power for my entire home (I don't care about being grid-tied either), my array supplies power for my needs during any power cut, for any length of time. If the power were to not go back on for ages, it wouldn't affect me. 

 

That, to me, is worth a lot.

[Mikala 14,383]

 

 

For similar reasons, I went solar in Cambodia. While it doesn't provide power for my entire home (I don't care about being grid-tied either), my array supplies power for my needs during any power cut, for any length of time. If the power were to not go back on for ages, it wouldn't affect me.

 

I enjoy having the lights on at my ranch in Hawaii while almost everyone else has lost their electricity from a wind storm or hurricane. With the high cost of electricity in Hawaii, it makes economic sense to have solar. The battery banks give me peace of mind.

[Paul 55,114]

 

 

I enjoy having the lights on at my ranch in Hawaii while almost everyone else has lost their electricity from a wind storm or hurricane.

 

You should see it from our view at the farm in Battambang. Man, the only lights on for miles, are at that farm at night. Two homes (adjacent to each other) have lights, and exterior lighting around one of the homes. 

[Cgu 797]

Thats' absolutely true!

You can choose to get a miserable 5 pesos selling your excess electricity in a on-grid system (just the generationn charge) still paying the consumed one twice this price.

  Or you can  get messed with batteries and controllers being off-grid...in both cases the costs of your solar system  will grow much higher than the the panels themselves...

A little bit late on the reply, but since I am in the country and have time to reply...

This is not 100% correct. In the Philippines you have Net-Metering, so you only pay the balance what you produce resp. consume. Only the excess power generated is paid out as rate of generation charge. Even the excess is normally put as credit of kwh for your consumption. So with a 2kwh (maybe 2.5kwh) I would not have to pay any electricity bills anymore. Currently, a 1kwh sells about 130-140k pesos, but I think with the costs of panels and inverters falling fast in a year time that could be below 100k. So if it is around 90k and the average kwh here in Cebu is around 11p, it would pay back in 5.5 years - not bad.