top of page

Solar Power - Real, Measurable Value


Even though renewable power systems can help combat big issues like fossil fuel depletion and pollution, this is rarely enough to justify the purchase of a system for most of us homeowners. We are mainly curious about the financial risk, long-term financial gain, and true value of installing solar panels (among other renewables) on our property.

Installing solar is a lot like remodeling your kitchen or adding a screened-in porch - with an initial investment, value is immediately added to your property. The great thing about solar is that, while adding value to your home instantly, the system also pays you back in electricity savings each month.

A study in 2015 by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that “home buyers are consistently willing to pay PV home premiums across various states, housing and PV markets, and home types; average premiums across the full sample equate to approximately $4/W” (Hoen, 2015)*. This analysis was based not on appraisals or asking price, but actual sale prices of 22,822 homes.

This basically means that if you install a 4kW (4,000 Watts) solar electric system on your home or property, you will add $16,000 to your property value. In addition to this, a solar panel system of this size typically costs $4/W ($16,000) installed.

In short, you get to retain 100% of your investment in resale value, while also reducing your monthly electric bill for the next 25 years!

We recently completed a solar panel installation for a Canton, Ohio family. They saw the investment opportunity in solar, and decided that their hard-earned money was best spent on something that not only adds value to their property, but also pays them back in each and every month.

This particular system consists of twenty 255W solar panels, and produces roughly 5.5 MWh of electricity annually. With the additional property value, this family will see a complete payback in as little as 1 year (the ‘payback’ can fluctuate depending on when the home is sold). Over the life of the system (25 years, with our solar panel warranty), this particular solar array will produce enough energy to save up to $14,000 in electricity, which would require 4,000 lbs. of coal in a traditional power plant.

Every time we do a solar installation, it always amazes us how exciting it is - we are excited to help the planet, and the customer is always excited to embrace the future and save money while doing so. Solar is truly a lifestyle - one that is becoming more and more prevalent every day.

Ready to see if solar is right for you and your property? Visit GoModernEnergy.com to get your free solar consultation.

Thanks for reading.

Johnathan

*Reference: Hoen, Ben., Adomatis, Sandra., Jackson, Thomas., Graff-Zivin, Joshua., Thayer, Mark., Kilse, Geoffry., & Wiser, Ryan. (2015). Selling Into the Sun: Price Premium Analysis of a Multi-State Dataset of Solar Homes. Ernest Orland: Berkeley National Laboratory.

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
No tags yet.
bottom of page