This is really incredible. If they could plug in local utility prices and come up with estimate for dollars saved per year, that would be an incredible conversation starter for homeowners who might not have considered taking on a home solar project otherwise.
Considering "Customer aquisition" as a cost is really funny (and that seems to be the "soft cost" discussed).
In Minnesota the "deal" for solar if you cannot DIY / off-grid is just meh.
They do not allow use of battery backups or cutover, they cut out when the power goes out, and they "credit" you to reduce your overall bill. You can make money if you produce more power in sunny warm times than you use year around (at least while you are the only one!), but the dream of energy independence at a local scale just isn't there yet.
What I want is something that offsets my grid use (potentially to zero but not negative), so that I can use grid or solar to charge my EV and a whole-home battery bank with three days reserve. I don't care about becoming part of the overall grid solution, but in city limits, it appears I must, and that necessitates extra equipment and rules out my backup use case.
And yet, I get constant calls and fliers about it - all "soft costs" - no matter how much I say no.
By "Northen" I assume you mean Europe, and (most of) USA?
I live near the 33rd parallel South. Since installing solar my annual grid requirements are around 30% of before solar [1] ‐ even as my actual consumption has risen [2].
As far as "Northern" goes countries in my latitude north (or better) include India, Mexica, all of Africa, most of China, and so on. So for most people living in the north it is compelling [4].
[1] a very large fraction of my grid usage is really cold, wet conditions for 6 weeks in winter. A combination of low generation and high usage for heating.
[2] cooling in summer is free, so we run the aircon a lot more. Plus things like slow-cooking etc are free as well.
[4] my return on investment (grid cost of generated electricity over capital invested) is 16.7%. Projected lifespan is 10 years for battery and inverter, 25 years on panels, 50 years on wiring.
> By "Northen" I assume you mean Europe, and (most of) USA?
People wrongly assume that you can put Europe and the US in the same basket (because temperature-wise climate is comparable), but half of Europe is further north than Montreal, and almost all of it is beyond Philadelphia, so no you can't really say “Europe and most of the US”.
