We invested in solar for our office a while back, and with energy prices climbing steadily, the financial and operational benefits are clear. 🌞 Comparing historical utility costs with today’s reality, the savings are significant, and it’s helping stabilize our energy budget.
Beyond cost, using cleaner energy aligns with our sustainability goals.. reducing our carbon footprint while supporting predictable operating expenses.
Are other businesses noticing similar impacts from switching to solar?
Seeing Real Solar ROI in Our Office 🌞
byu/Individual_Event_152 ininvesting
Posted by Individual_Event_152
3 Comments
I know I’ve had solar on my house for 10 years now. I got 55% tax credits (whole system was about $22k, so actual cost was about 10k). Interest rate was 2.99 so I just let the loan go for the full decade. I’ve had zero issues, but I seem to be an anomaly. Now it’s all “profit/savings”.
I used to keep a spreadsheet for first 3 years on savings vs payment on the loan. I soon realized that it was pretty linear so I stopped. I ended up “paying” about $250 a year more than it was producing. So at the 10 year mark it’s about $2500 I paid out of pocket for the system.
I calculate it now saves me about $500 a year in production….. give or take. So it will take 15 years round trip before I’m saving $500 a year granted there are no issues.
Now, the solar company has obviously declared bankruptcy at this point so my “warranty” is gone. So when I put a new roof on soon, I’ll have to have them removed. That will cost. I do have to clean them every spring, but not a big deal.
Would I do it again knowing the outcome? Sure. Would I do it again seeing outcomes many of my friends have had with issues in production, broken promises from multiple companies? Probably not to be honest. $500 a year isn’t chump change, but taking 15 years to recoup all losses could have amount to a lot more just shoving into an index fund.
Also, if that gov subsidy wasn’t a thing, no way EVER would I get them.
We don’t have enough sunny days and high enough electric rate to justify the expense of solar panels. I have a “synthetic” solar solution. At my old house I had Duke Energy for electric and Vectren (now CenterPoint) for natural gas. I invested the cost of solar panels into Duke and Vectren stocks. The dividends from those two stocks reimburses me for my electric and gas bills. I pay my gas and electric bills and the companies pay me more in dividends than my bills were.
I def think people need to visualize giant warehouses and office buildings when we talk green energy. Solar panels on a one bedroom might not be super effective. Idk. But solar panels on a giant sprawling data center out in arizona? That’s what we need to be investing in