Good points, but you're making me feel guilty for having some rooftop solar. I bought it about 2010. At the time, the federal and state tax credits made it appear to be a good and tempting investment. At first, it was fun watching the meter turn backwards knowing that PGE would be paying me retail for it. However, because of the way tax credits and deductions are structured, after a few years, because of a large unrelated deduction and the limits on how much you could write off in any one year, my credits ran out before I was able to take full advantage of them. Meanwhile, not being very computer savvy, I wasn't paying attention or following the wireless reports on my solar electric production output, (I discontinued our land phone line and ignorantly thought the little gadget that transmitted the solar data was useless, so threw it out) and didn't notice that after a few years the output drastically declined. When I heard somehow that Enbridge was offering partial warranty credit on their early inverters that had a high failure rate, I got on board and had all the inverters replaced and now I've got good output again. But the overall picture is that I've lost money, although if the system keeps working for another 10 years, and electric rates keep going up, and PGE keeps paying for my excess output (doubtful) then I'll eventually come out ok.
But you're right, and any gain I make will be at someone else;s expense, and I do not feel good about that.
Good points, but you're making me feel guilty for having some rooftop solar. I bought it about 2010. At the time, the federal and state tax credits made it appear to be a good and tempting investment. At first, it was fun watching the meter turn backwards knowing that PGE would be paying me retail for it. However, because of the way tax credits and deductions are structured, after a few years, because of a large unrelated deduction and the limits on how much you could write off in any one year, my credits ran out before I was able to take full advantage of them. Meanwhile, not being very computer savvy, I wasn't paying attention or following the wireless reports on my solar electric production output, (I discontinued our land phone line and ignorantly thought the little gadget that transmitted the solar data was useless, so threw it out) and didn't notice that after a few years the output drastically declined. When I heard somehow that Enbridge was offering partial warranty credit on their early inverters that had a high failure rate, I got on board and had all the inverters replaced and now I've got good output again. But the overall picture is that I've lost money, although if the system keeps working for another 10 years, and electric rates keep going up, and PGE keeps paying for my excess output (doubtful) then I'll eventually come out ok.
But you're right, and any gain I make will be at someone else;s expense, and I do not feel good about that.