1. It’s expensive
Let’s not kid ourselves here…an awful lot of time, attention, and money has been put into finding nifty financial tricks and schemes to lower the impact of the financial burden that a solar array can place on the end customer. Despite the fact that prices have really plummeted in the past few years, a typical residential array can run easily $20,000 to $50,000. Anyone who has that kind of cash lying around probably isn’t desperate enough to have to consider solar-power in the first place, right?
Well, while this “reason” in a very narrow sense is technically true in that it can be expensive, if you look at things from an energy-cost standpoint, you will actually save money in the long run by purchasing a solar array. In the companion article to this one, Three Reasons to Go Green and get Solar Power, I explain a comparison between my energy costs if I were to install a solar array or not. To summarize its conclusion, once the initial array is paid off, the solar-customer’s power bill essentially vanishes. As long as the solar-customer is able to maintain their array, they will continue to derive free power from the array, while the utility-grid customer is stuck still footing an ever-increasing bill.
In fact, the article goes so far as to make this point while still having me get pretty heavily fleeced by the contractor, and I still wound up saving money before my array was even fully paid off. You can argue that solar-power is expensive all you want, but nowadays, it’s just not true. As of 2011, it’s pretty much cost effective for everyone to switch to solar as soon as they can, because it’s effectively the same as locking-in their current power bill and not having it increase for two decades, as opposed to allowing it to continue increasing indefinitely.
2. It can be gaudy or ugly at times
This admittedly is subjective, and while my personal beliefs are that there is intrinsic beauty in function, I have heard this complaint so often from customers that I feel it must at least be addressed. From what I’ve experienced in talking with customers is that a certain portion people (around 30% or so) hate the color, hate the industrial appearance, hate the squared and blocky shape, and just hate the whole appearance in general.
Image of utilitarian design courtesy of SimplifiedBuilding.com
It’s easy to understand where they’re coming from. On a day-to-day basis, the majority of the systems I see are utilitarian and basic by design. You can look at a solar array and pick out its primary components: modules, frame, inverter, wiring conduits…that’s pretty much it. For the last 20 years, the solar industry has been in a life-or-death struggle to compete to see who can create the cheapest array, the lightest most efficient modules, even inverters that don’t require heavy and bulky (not to mention expensive) transformers. As a result, modern arrays are lean in terms of material usage, cheap and easy to construct, but look like they’re the malformed marketing idea from a stained-glass window company trying suddenly to drum up business in the form of billboards seen from the sky.
Interestingly enough, there has been such a noticeable outcry from the consumer base that an entirely new branch of the solar industry grew to meet the need. This branch comes in the form of Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) solar, or PV-based solar power that is designed for the main purpose of aesthetically integrating with the building in a visually pleasing manner.
Images of BIPV installations courtesy of GroupSat.com
Rather than try and argue with consumers in regards to the appearance of the PV arrays, the industry as a whole has chosen to acknowledge and address the issue by making solar that focuses on appearance above all else. There are many different forms, from PV-integrated windows, to doors, to even Spanish tiles made from solar materials. There are even many different options of color and translucency to choose from. If appearance has been the primary factor in preventing you from owning a solar array, then I recommend researching a contractor that has BIPV options available, as you may find something they offer peaks your interest.
3. It is a fire hazard
Believe it or not, this is completely false. When properly installed to NEC code, a solar array is no more a fire hazard than a computer or a refrigerator. Think about it, what is there to burn in a solar array? The modules are made of aluminum, glass, and silicon or some kind of chemical ink (thin film). The frame is steel, the wires are copper, hell…even the insulation is made of flame-resistant materials. None of those are hydrocarbons, and all of which can be exposed to direct flame and not catch on fire…so how did these things catch the stereotype that they’re dangerous fire hazards?
When too much current is passed through a wire, it can become very hot. If the wire is so drastically undersized that it melts, the connections within the circuit might become to burn or oxidize, or even melt entirely. When this happens, an arc-flash can occur. An arc-flash is an event in which an extremely high-current electric circuit is suddenly opened. For a brief instant, the electricity refuses to stop, and instead forces itself through the air, jumping from one conductor to another in a brilliant flash, much like a small bolt of lightning. However, if conditions are just right, the incredible raw and unharnessed power coming from the solar array can punch its way across the air and continue the circuit, even when it has been opened from melted wires. In this situation, the arc is continuous and produces high-energy plasma, capable of melting and burning through even concrete. Thus, only in this one rare and difficult-to-occur situation, does a solar array become a fire hazard.
To date, I am aware of only two primary reasons for ALL fires caused within a solar array, anywhere in the world, and they are the following:
- Modules made by BP-Solar (in Europe only in 2009) that were poorly engineered and spontaneously burst into flames occasionally. From the reports I’ve seen, BP made modules that had bypass diodes that caught fire if the modules were partially shaded in a very specific way. They were ordered by a German court to find a solution, and BP’s response was to create a “membrane” that would fit between the module and the building, so that in the event of fire, the building wouldn’t burn as easily. The German court’s response was to order the removal of BP modules from all German buildings if another solution wasn’t found. To my knowledge, there still has not been a solution found to BP’s spontaneous fire issue.
- Improper or poor installation practices from electricians or engineers new to solar and not understanding what they’re doing. The most common mistake is to undersize wires, which creates overheating issues. However, loose/faulty connections, corrosion, improper or nonexistent grounding, and improper inverter sizing are all mistakes that can also lead to fires under the right conditions.
That’s it. No conspiracy, no combustible materials, no secret sauce, nothing but your typical human error fueled by arrogant refusal to admit one’s own mistakes.
4. What do you do if the sun doesn’t come up one day?
From my experience, I have found that there are two types of people who ask this particular question:
- Those that honestly believe that it is physically possible that one day, they might wake up and the sun is mysteriously gone, despite which the entirety of our society would be wholly unaffected, provided they are users of fossil fuel, leaving only those with the misfortune of using solar power to an eternity without electricity.
- Those that are indirectly asking about unexpected weather conditions.
I choose to believe that everyone who asks me this question is the latter category, as choosing otherwise leaves one with the frightening realization that many of these people are voting citizens.
In terms of weather patterns, yes they are somewhat of a concern. Moderate overcast conditions can reduce the amount of current output from your array by as much as 90% and extremely heavy clouds such as in dense snowstorms or hurricanes can completely prevent power generation at all from lack of sunlight. Heavy fog in the mornings can also reduce the production of an array, but this particular effect can be reduced by rotating the array slightly to the west, to make better use of afternoon sun.
For the average solar customer, however, this concern is founded on nothing. Most solar customers have a grid-tied system, meaning their solar array feeds surplus power back on to the grid, running the meter backwards. That means that all the benefits from the grid still remain, so you won’t have a blackout even in the thickest of weather (unless, of course, the power-lines also go down). Only off-grid customers, or people who run their own independent grid in remote locations, have to worry about unexpected weather. However, most of these facilities have battery racks installed, which can store enough energy for several days. Weather may have been a crippling problem in the 1980’s when this technology first was becoming commercially available, but nowadays, concerns over weather can be designed out with proper planning and equipment.
For example, I know first-hand that solar panels were used to power weather-stations installed near the Arctic Circle, in northern Canada. We designed in enough battery capability to last the two weeks in which the sun didn’t rise above the horizon, and then some. This was all achieved with basically the equivalent of a single car battery, which wasn’t expensive at all. Again, the technology is already available; weather should never be an issue for a properly designed array.
5. It will increase your property tax
This is so often overlooked that it comes around to blindside many customers right after the initial financial hit of the installation itself. Adding solar-power to your property intrinsically increases the value of your property, therefore, if you pay an annual property tax, get ready for it to go up and stay up.
While this is indeed a looming and legitimate reason to avoid considering solar at all, keep in mind that this industry thrived for decades on a specific niche of customers who wanted to have their array discreetly installed…so discreetly that permits not be needed and all payments made in cash. Remember, you can get anything built if you ask the right contractor…you just have to know what to ask.
6. You will still have to deal with power outages
One of the most common misconceptions about purchasing a solar array is the idea that you’ll be able to sever yourself from the “evil clutches” of the utility company. Sadly, for nine out of every ten solar-customers, this just isn’t true. Most people who install a solar array choose an option called net-metering, which is a program that you enter with the utility company intended to make the most efficient use of the energy generated by your solar array.
With net-metering, a special type of power meter, called a bi-directional meter, replaces your current power meter in your home. With this bi-directional meter, the amount of energy you generate will be subtracted from the overall amount of energy you used from the grid. The benefit behind this for the customer is the fact that they can get away with a smaller array on average, and they can draw their night-time power from the grid instead of having to use expensive battery racks. Since this option usually has the side effect of reducing the cost of the solar array by almost half, the vast majority of solar customers choose to follow the net-metering option.
The downside of this path, however, is the necessity of a stable grid to transmit the power to and from. As a safety precaution, modern inverters are designed to shut down in the event that the utility grid has a problem. This is to help workers trying to repair the damaged power lines not have to worry about if someone has connected a solar-generator to the same lines, making them energized and unsafe to get near. This means that for those customer who choose the common net-metering path, when the utility grid goes down, so do they, and so does their solar. It’s a necessity for safety, however it’s also somewhat of a nuisance.
7. It will cause your roof to leak
I’ve seen this happen all too often…someone purchases a solar array from some sub-contractor that only recently started solar. He’s got the array drilled into the roof within a single day and then he’s off to the next job. The worst part about this is that nobody finds out about this issue until it’s too late and the first storm has already hit. In fact, this exact event was so commonplace that consumers took a defensive, almost paranoid stance about the whole subject and started demanding that contractors install arrays without making a single hole in the roof.
This doesn’t sound like an unreasonable request until you start thinking about logistics involved: you have about a ton of glass, steel, and silicon wired to extremely high-power and high-voltage lines, all installed at a 30 to 40 degree incline. And you can’t make a single hole in the roof. How do you prevent the array from simply sliding off the roof? Clamps? Never works…Glue? Sometimes used, has its own problems…What about weather? How will this thing stand up in the rain? What about high-winds? And it’s got to last at least 20 years?
Thankfully, there are niche companies that sprouted up to fill this specific demand. For example, a company called Lumeta creates a solar-module that is a giant sticker, with industrial adhesive spread across the back of the module, designed to adhere to roofing composite material for extended periods of time. I have seen other companies take different approaches to using adhesives, such as making racking stands or framing bases with a sticky surface on the bottom. These are usually designed to stick to the roof, providing a stable and rigid base with which to install a frame and modules on later. I’ve worked with these alternatives in the past and they do a fine job, but I personally enjoy the creativity and directness of Lumeta’s approach to this market challenge.
If giant solar-module stickers are out of the question for you, but you’re only really avoiding solar because of this “reason,” then I recommend looking up a solar contractor with specifically a C-39 Roofing license, as that will pretty much ensure that your roofing concerns will be addressed and taken care of by professionals who know what they’re doing.
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