The Greens are promoting solar power plus long-term low interest loans as an election bribe. But its clear they haven't discussed their ‘bonanza' solution with solar installers. Photo-voltaic panels cannot store electricity; and since most family's maximum power consumption is in the evening (when the sun has lost energy), solar panels become ineffective.
To store solar power, a multi-battery pack, plus a power inverter are required. So add an additional $4 to $10k for this to the touted $15k solar ‘deal'. Or you can sell surplus solar power to the grid in the day and buy power in the evening. The reality is, the grid company will buy it at 0.6c/unit and charge peak time rates - $0.26c/unit -to supply it.
This makes the Greens' solar power alternative less attractive, particularly when interest charges and lost opportunity cost on funds are factored in.
So phone your local solar installer before leaping into this Greens' bonanza. Because you'll be paying for the deal long after this crop of politicians depart the Beehive.
Max Lewis, Mount Maunganui.
1 comment
GREEN HAZE
Posted on 28-02-2014 13:07 | By crazyhorse
Typical Greens, Borrow $15,000 and pay it back with your rates over 15 years. Everything you read say's the life span of these soar panels is only 20 years and they are a nightmare to dispose of,one chemical widely used in panels is sulfurhexafluoride (SF6), a substance 22,800 times more dangerous to the environment than CO2, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "Green haze, it's out'a faze", the European Union already has laws in place to make manufacturers responsible for the disposal of their solar panels they are expecting a major problem.
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