Solar Panels: Any advice?

[Jer]

Besides looking dumb for your neighbors, how realistic would it be to pay for the racking and electrical to be installed, then add panels as one can afford? Adding panels is just bolt them into the rack and plug in the panel. It's as easy plug and play as it gets. If you set up the racking and electrical to fit the total planned panels, having less shouldn't be a problem. I assume that the city wouldn't let this fly as they'd want to inspect the final product. Never mind.

I guess it depends on your idea of "looking dumb" but these days they don't look too bad at all and that's if you can even spot them. I just found out recently that two of our neighbors have solar and I've still only seen one of them myself even though we walk our neighborhood nightly and I actively look for the second. The panels they use these days are low profile and look much better than panels of yore. You can even get them w/o the white grids so they stand out even less. These come at a premium and aren't as efficient as the lined ones so most don't opt for them but they're an option. They also have roof tiles that are slowly becoming available to consumers that look amazing but they're nowhere as efficient as the panels and are quite expensive. It's cool though to think that in our lifetime we'll have a tile option that looks as good or better than a regular shingle roof and produces electricity for free from an otherwise dead area. There is a lot of permitting and BS that goes in to do this properly. As I think about what you typed I think you meant more about the grid installed w/o panels in some portions. I'm too lazy to go back and edit so... deal with what I typed! lol

Whoever installs will install whatever panels you want. I don't think they will install a bunch of brackets and wiring in preparation for future expansion but I also don't think you'll be saving much by doing this anyway. Think about all the years that extra you spent to install the ability to expand could have been better invested elsewhere offsetting whatever extra "trip charge" you get down the road. There's also a strong probability that whatever you buy down the road will require different wiring and components to where what you installed today might not even be compatible with new systems.

Until residential solar customers are completely disconnected from the grid, the grid must be maintained. Just as governments are looking to charge EV owners additional fees due to lost gas tax revenues, I expect something similar for residential solar.

I'm sure you're right. I don't know how that will look but the guv always gets it's cut... just a question of how large each slice is to make up the pie. Find a way to eliminate a slice and they will just make the other slices larger.

We're just in the early phases of how all of this will lay out but it's promising to know that someday, eventually.... electricity will be free. That's dream and end-game anyway for those who are gung ho into this sort of thing. This opens up lots of possibilities.

[Irving]

We're just in the early phases of how all of this will lay out but it's promising to know that someday, eventually.... electricity will be free. That's dream and end-game anyway for those who are gung ho into this sort of thing. This opens up lots of possibilities.

Electricity will never be free. If it's a commodity, someone will figure out a way to make you pay for it, especially governments.