Choice magazine have come out today with a report that shows that in the ACT and NSW, it can take as little as five years for a home solar panel power system to pay for itself. But in other areas, like Tasmania, it can take up to 45 years. This is supposedly due to a combination of the number of hours of sunshine different parts of the country get, but is also heavily affected by the feed-in tariff schemes (renewable energy certificates) that are paid at different rates, and in different ways, in each State/Territory. ABC Story Here.
I checked this out recently, I was thinking about installing a 1.5kW system at my shop (I only need solar panels 500w or 1kW but the smallest available system is 1.5kW) and it looks like it would take less than six years to have paid itself off. Am kicking myself now that I got an electrician to install grid power instead! It would have cost six times as much to install solar, but a better financial decision in the long term.
Solar Panels - Are They Worth It?
