How much are Solar Panels worth

rob oyle said:
So our return in 2025 (our first year of monitoring) was €888
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Thanks very much for this. It is great to see a calculation based on experience bearing out my estimates.

This is very much in line with the €750 I had brought my estimate to above. And your export to the grid is less than my assumption so your return is a bit better.
 
cremeegg said:
I started at €22k but thanks to @Zenith63 pointing out that most of the power generated will be sold back to the grid at a lower price I have revised my estimate of the value down to €14k.
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Like _OkGo_ I don't know what you mean re the value of 10 panels. Maybe it's blinding obvious . . is it value (net saving) over a set number of years or something else?
 
Marsupial said:
I have 10 panels, west facing, each generating up to 0.41 kWh (on paper, although up to .44 each in real life!) so the system spec is 4.1kWh.
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Marsupial said:
2024: Total PV generated: 3400 total exported. 2550 = 75%
2025: Total PV generated: 3565 total exported. 2800 = 78.5%
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Great, so this is very much in line with the forecast my installer gave me of 3,500 kWh for a year.
 
michaelm said:
is it value (net saving) over a set number of years or something else?
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It is the NPV of 10 panels.

To summarise so far (with the main assumptions)

10 panels will generate 3,500 kWh in a year (see posters above)
Each 1 kWh generated is worth 21.5 cents (using 30% at 26 cents, exporting 70% at 19.5 cents)

The value of the output from the 10 panels is €750 a year.

Using a discounted cashflow rate of 6% that gives a NPV of €12.5k

No one has questioned this discount rate. In effect it is a tax free rate, and the return can probably be described as risk free. Is 6% appropriate?
 
Blackrock1 said:
a 16kwh battery pre assembled and delivered for less than 2k
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Really? Are they actually that cheap now? MyEnergyPal suggests that a 5kw battery would cover 94% of my usage so hard to see this not being a good option. One of the problems for me is that currently even if I am in the house I don't use a lot of power directly (my main usage is an electric immersion as I don't have a wet system, and cooking). So a lot of daytime generation would be lost for me.
 
cremeegg said:
The answer for 10 panels in Ireland will come out about 3500 kWhr in a year.

What is each kWhr worth. If it replaces a purchased kWhr then the answer is about 35 cent. That’s €1255 a year.
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A discounted rate is circa 27c day and 14c night. I'm 35% off peak usage.

so 2300 @ 27c + 1200 @ 14c would give me a more correct figure - and that's assuming I can use up all the power generated and it generates at the time I use it. "Saving" is €789.
Was quoted 9k net for a 10 panel system, so 12 year payback and not taking into account the cost of paying 9k upfront. Even a 2% return on that 10k, would bring the "saving" down to €600.

Just doesn't entice me.

Whereas the new window upgrade grant about to be announced will see triple glazing windows and doors cost about the same net figure and probably save at least €1000 a year in heating bills and have a far warmer house.
 
cremeegg said:
So you exported 53% of the power you generated. That's a little better than the 70% I had estimated, and is that without an electric car ?
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Correct, no EV. Although we do have a smart immersion switch, so I'm not sure what the value of efficiently heated water in the summer would be (in the winter the heating also heats the water, so the immersion isn't active). Or how much that 53% would change by if we were only heating the water when we wanted to. Our further issue is that we have an electric shower so we're not using the hot tank as much as we could.
 
lff12 said:
Really? Are they actually that cheap now?
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Interesting thread and very timely for me. I'm plannng on buying a house with a large south-facing roof and no panels yet so this will help inform my decisions.
 
Blackrock1 said:
fair play, do you have solar as well or just battery, be interested to know about your set up, how you manage it etc.
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Had solar almost exactly two years before buying the battery, knew I’d get fleeced by an installer to put the battery in so just made sure my inverter was hybrid with the intention to add the battery myself later.

I have just under 7kwp of panels south facing. Made just shy of 6 MWH in 2025, and 5.1 MWH in 2024.

Have a smart meter with two hours EV rate (9cent) from 0200-0400 so I charge my EV and battery during this window. I have night rate then from 0200-0800 (16 cent) and I tell it not to discharge during this period (as still cheap) then from 0800-2300 on day rate (33 cent) I tell it to take the load until it either runs out or if it still has power I tell it to force dump to the grid up to 0200 again as I get paid FIT 19.5 cent vs charging it at 9cent.
 
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peemac said:
Saving" is €789.
Was quoted 9k net for a 10 panel system, so 12 year payback and not taking into account the cost of paying 9k upfront. Even a 2% return on that 10k, would bring the "saving" down to €600.

Just doesn't entice me.
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Using your own figures a return of €789 per annum on an investment of €9,000 is 8.77%

2% on €9,000 is €180 before tax, that’s €120 after tax. Well if that doesn’t entice you fair enough, you must be rich.
 
FANTANA said:
Have a smart meter with two hours EV rate (9cent) from 0200-0400 so I charge my EV and battery during this window. I have night rate then from 0200-0800 (16 cent) and I tell it not to discharge during this period (as still cheap) then from 0800-2300 on day rate (33 cent) I tell it to take the load until it either runs out or if it still has power I tell it to force dump to the grid up to 0200 again as I get paid FIT 19.5 cent vs charging it at 9cent.
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Have you calculated how much the battery alone was saving you? I wonder what the benefits would be of just getting a battery.
 
Premos said:
I wonder what the benefits would be of just getting a battery.
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Was just wondering the same thing myself but I was kicking that can down the road as I need to get my windows and doors replaced before I do anything else... :confused:
 
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