Solar panel prices very low

[Catweazle]

Are they likely to go lower ? Or can we expect them to go up ?

Decent quality 415 watt panels, 12 year warranty, 25 year performance guarantee, are now under £70 each.

Worth stocking up or not ?

https://www.wagner-renewables.com/produ ... all-black/

[Catweazle]

It looks to me as if adding panels to an existing inverter that has spare capacity will have a payback period of less than a year.

https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-p ... 20the%20UK.

EBay is selling used 3 or 4 KW inverters for a couple of hundred pounds, add ten panels at £700 add cables and sundries at £300 (DIY stuff) and you could have an off grid system for less than £1500 that will generate over £750 worth of electricity a year.

Why is it all so cheap now ?

[adam2]

I expect PV prices to remain at about the present level.
Increasingly automated production is reducing prices, but there are limits to this.
The present low prices makes pv installation worthwhile even in non optimum locations.

[BritDownUnder]

Always worth stocking up on these things.

You could always make another car port/lean to with solar panels if you want to keep them somewhere.

In my experience the inverter will go first so keep a stock of them too.

[Catweazle]

I recently bought another 20 x 405wp panels. Brand Canadian Solar, 25 year guarantees.

£48 +VAT EACH. Delivery of the pallet was another £150.

At these prices I can afford to put them on less than optimal surfaces, like a South facing barn wall, to benefit from as much winter solar as possible.

Interestingly, the panel output when mounted vertically is a disappointing 70% of optimal, but when laid flat the output is 90% of optimal.

[adam2]

Mounting on a south facing wall tends to give the best winter output, and it is often in winter that the power is most needed.

[clv101]

I recently added some panels at 75° facing SSW, for winter afternoon sun.

[BritDownUnder]

Interestingly, the panel output when mounted vertically is a disappointing 70% of optimal, but when laid flat the output is 90% of optimal.

If it is flat you are benefiting from the diffuse light from the whole sky perhaps. If vertical you are getting the diffuse light from only half the sky.

I once did a spreadsheet that worked out the output of a panel at any elevation and azimuth for each day of the year.

[Catweazle]

I'm limited in the amount of electricity I can export, unless I go through an application process which might well be refused, so setting up some panels to help fill in the winter dip rather than generate the highest year-total output makes sense to me.

They are the cheapest I've seen, maybe if Trump puts trade barriers up they'll get even cheaper as China finds new markets. Maybe not. For me, the current bargain price is too good to resist.