New Solar System + Solar Update For July

A fellow beekeeper put up a new 14.5 KWH solar system at their home. It consists of 42 panels. They originally wanted 48 panels, but Xcel told them that may exceed their feed wiring capacity to their house. This is because the main wire near their house was  installed in 1937 and never has been upgraded by the utility.

 Their new system is just coming online this week I think. Everything is done, they are just waiting for Xcel to set their meter. The 14.5 KWH solar system set them back $52,000.00. They will be getting a federal tax credit of about $13,500.00. So their out of pocket will be $38,500.00. They will probably have that all paid off in 10-12 years. Most solar panels have a life of 25 years minimum, with a performance of still over 90% after 25 years. The size of their system will probably cover 90% of their yearly utility bill (gas and electric). Any credit from Xcel can be used against the utility bill.

 They had All Energy Solar. install the solar system.They were very pleased with their contractor. Click on the pictures for full size.

They went with a ground mount solar system. This ground mount is fixed. It will not be able to change the panel angle. Usually fixed solar systems are set at about 37 degrees at our latitude. The advantage with the ground mount is that the solar panels are easy to remove snow and to keep clean. The panels are located in full sun so they will collect the maximum solar power available.

Our solar update for the month of July.

 So far this year it has been a very good year for solar. Our July solar was 2.42 megawatts or 2420 kilowatts. The average home in the U.S. uses about 900 kilowatts per month. So we made more than 2-1/2 times what a normal home would use. We will get a credit on our Xcel bill for July. Solar does work well in MN and WI.