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rootusrootus • yesterday at 3:51 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

Dominated by labor costs, right? It'll probably just keep going up at this point, even if the panel cost went to zero.


Replies

lostapathy • yesterday at 3:58 PM

A lot of the "labor" costs are just regulatory/permitting in disguise. An expedited approval regime with standards such that, permits-wise, installing solar panels was as easy as installing an EV charger would save a ton of money.

Matt Ferrell just did a video on this recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3eEzdpi12I

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klardotsh • yesterday at 4:01 PM

Generally correct. Here in Washington I could get Signature Solar to ship me 31 excellent Canadian Solar bifacial panels on a pallet for $9200 plus tax and shipping (so add another grand or so). This would be 21kW of solar (plus a bit if bifacial gain kicks in), which is a ton - you could even do some winter work with that, if angled correctly.

This setup would cost north of $50k (possibly north of $75k, depending) if installed by contractors. Labor costs are extremely high here, since COL is extremely high.

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cucumber3732842 • yesterday at 4:10 PM

You're scooping up a lot of regulation and red tape in that "labor" bucket.

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