[ExI] Solar power makes UK people poorer

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
...

>> a lot there.  800 kWh per kWp is way below the economic threshold by my
BOTECs.  I have an Oregon property with[about half again] that insolation,
but it is still marginal for rooftop solar, probably still a no-go.  spike

>Keep checking back every couple years as new prices and new technology come
in. Eugen
 

Eugen there is a shadow market that interests me.  Down here in the SF Bay
area, the rooftop solar is a definite go: peak power is expensive down
here,.  A rooftop installation knocks one off the expensive third and fourth
tiers.  However new homeowners come in who do not like the looks of rooftop
solar, and often want them taken down.  Other solar installations were tax
subsidized.  After the subsidy is written off, some of those homeowners want
that stuff off their roofs.  A solar de-installation costs money, and the
salvage value of old PVs is limited.

Recently a friend was offered a solar water heater free if he would go up
there and take it all down, and haul away all the equipment that goes along
with it.  We did so.  He put it up on his own house.  I have a notion that
plenty of PV owners will offer used panels at way cheap prices if I supply
the labor to get the stuff down.  So my strategy on the Oregon property is
to arrange an open ended expandable setup which I can add to as people
either give me their old PVs or I can buy them for a tenth their retail
price.  By that calculus, the Oregon property is a go, but the California
property is not.  I don't mind cluttering up the Oregon barn roof with a mix
and match bunch of junk, but I don't want it on my California house, nor do
I want it cluttering my very limited ground space here.  

Given enough salvage PVs, I can even use some of the very plentiful Oregon
property ground space with PVs.  The value of the displaced crops is low
enough it might be a good bet, depending on how much the local power company
is willing to pay me for the power generated.

My task is to get clever in figuring out how to mix and match salvage PVs
and feed the result into an inverter.  This might become a skill as valuable
as auto mechanics proved to be in my misspent youth.

spike