Here is SoCal the excess power is sold back at the generation rate, which is like $0.04/kwhr. I think the reatil price to purchase it for your home is between 0.12 and 0.27, not including delivery fees, which about double the bill. Still, the system I was looking to purchase was a 1.8Kw system and had a payback time of ~8 year. The system was going to be $8900 to purchase, ~500 in permitting fees, and between $500-1000 for the electrition to do the final wiring after I physically install the system myself. Federal tax credit of 30% knocks $3000 off the price, and Edison is paying ~$0.14/watt in incentives, so another $250. That brings my total cost to ~$6800 and will save us ~70 bucks a month. Works out to 8 years break even, but we also just installed a pool and don't know how much the pump is going to run a month, so it may be less time until payback. I live in the middle of the desert, but used a 5 hour a day estimate as my roofline is east/west.
After that Edison just bills you once a year, so you don't get screwed every month with generation rates. If you produce more in the winter than you use, you save the credits until the summertime when you can use them up. Only once a year do they tally up used vs produced and send you a bill. So as long as you don't install a system that generations huge amounts of overages, then you don't really get screwed on the production vs retail rate.
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Originally Posted by ShaneJackson
