Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Roof Top Solar Costs

Georgetown is pursuing a commercial and residential roof top solar program as a way to wean Georgetown away from purchasing electricity from ERCOT(Feb.22, 2018 GeorgetownWatchDog). The existing city contracts with NRG and EDF Renewable Energy do not provide sufficient electricity during high demand periods to allow the City to credibly claim it is totally "green" energy.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) has calculated the levelized cost of electricity for photovoltaic systems without subsidies and found the following:

Residential: 12.9 to 16.7 cents per KwHr
Commercial: 9.2 to 12.0 cents per KwHr
Utility Scale: 4.4 to 6.6 cents per KwHr

Given these unsubsidized costs, the City must perform a payback or breakeven analysis and share the results with the citizens of Georgetown before they commit to roof top solar!

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