When will photovoltaic solar panels be economic on average private house in Ireland?

[eamonn123456]

I have a large pitched roof, the rear of which is south facing.

Theoretically ideal for PV panels without planning issues.

As I understand it, PV panels are not economic in the average domestic house, due to the high cost of the units compared with the electricity generated.

This coupled with the fact that any excess at any time can not be sold back to the grid (yet), which would obviously help offset the cost and make it more economic.

1. Does anyone know when it will be possible to sell back to the grid?

2. Anyone know when will grants come on stream for this?

3. Anyone have any idea when will the technology get cheap enough (within Ireland) to make it economic?

4. Bearing all these factors in mind, anyone want to hazard an educated guess as to when the whole thing will start to make sense i.e. will payback within a reasonable time frame?

Thanks.

 

[Silvergirl]

Re: When will photovoltaic solar panels be economic on average private house in Irela

Hi Eamonn,

There was a piece on the last word the week before last where the minister was on about the ESB pilot testing a new smart meter in some randonly selected homes around the country in the next few weeks.

This is being done by ESB Networks and he said it is definitely going ahead in every house at a cost absorbed by ESB networks as it will help them manage the national grid more effectively and reduce their overall operating costs. The plan is that this new system will also facilitate a buy / sell back system to the grid from home generated power.

If I remember correctly they mentioned 2 years for this to completed (installed in every home) but I would be interested in hearing a further update after the trial. There may be additional information on the ESB Networks website.

We have approx 5 metres of solar panels though and are getting all our hot water from them even with this summer and find them fantastic.

We were just in in time for the SEI grant though which has now finished and that was a big help.

HTH

 

[krissovo]

Re: When will photovoltaic solar panels be economic on average private house in Irela

I have been looking at this as well, even though you cannot sell back to the grid I have been looking at storage using a bank of batteries with a inverter.

Now the batteries are expensive when you use the recommended batteries so I might investigate using truck batteries. I would have these in the loft charging away and use it to power my music studio for normal running and switch it over to power the heating circuits and lights in the event of a power cut.

This setup should keep essentials running for any blackout or the brownouts that are due in the UK in the next few years with their ageing grid