The Cost and Savings of our Home Energy Plant and Fuel Station

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Cost of the energy plant upgrades with tax breaks $35,000
Cost of the energy plant upgrades without tax breaks $54,000
Achieved Savings after four years $23,720
Projected savings after six years (cost parity) $38,196
Projected savings after nine years (cost parity with no subsidies) $59,910
Projected savings after 30 years $155,980
Projected savings after 30 years (adjusted for rising gas and electricity cost) $445,000

This post is going to be a little techie. This will definitively describe to you how our home energy plant and electric car fueling station is far less expensive than utility supplied electricity and gasoline for a gas car with or without government subsidies. This is our actual experience as a typical family and home owner, car driver.

Julie and I constructed our home and moved in in late 2006. Our base year before the installation of Solar PV was 2007, January 1st 2008 we turned on our first 4.5KW solar pv station.

you can see how it went down in 2008!

In 2007 our electricity use was $4928. Our gasoline use for our Volvo S60R was $2,600 a year. This establishes a baseline of $7,528 a year for electricity and gas use.

Our cost associated with our original 4.5kw solar PV system was $20,000, 2 years later we added a 3kw system to power the electric car for $12,000. We have also upgraded our lighting in the home to LED and CCFL for a cost of $3,000.

The total cost for our home energy upgrades was $35,000.

Without any state or federal grants or subsidies the cost would have been $54,000.

We are approaching the end of our fourth year for the system, I am rounding to four complete years. Our average energy bill for the home and the electric car has been $290 per year for the past 4 years.

This represents a four year savings in energy cost for the home of $18,520 ($19,680-$1,160)

We have been driving Mini-E #183 the past 2 years 15,000 miles a year, saving $5,200 in gasoline cost. The electricity cost is included in the above $290 per year figure, so a net savings of $5200 a year.

Our total savings to date after four years of solar PV powering the home and two years powering our Mini-E equals $23,720.

Adding two more years, 2012, 2013 at an annual savings of $7238 ($7,528 minus $290) equals $38,196

This is a six year savings in utility energy cost and gas cost of $38,196. (Parity with original energy system cost) Our ROI on home solar compared to utility provided energy is 12%, the ROI on solar electric fuel compared to gasoline is 33%

The Solar PV system will provide energy for 25 years warranted and well beyond. A simple calculation of taking that six year savings number and multiplying it by five for 30 years of energy production yields $190,980 or a net total savings of $155,980 ($190,980 minus $35,000)

That simple calculation is in today’s dollars and does not factor in the rising cost of future electricity and gasoline in the next 25 years. Remember solar is a fixed price (the sun has never raised its price) and gas and electricity will continue to rise in cost.

The real savings adjusted for increasing gas and electricity at 5% a year is nearly $450,000

first year, $7528.00

In summary.

Cost of the energy plant upgrades with tax breaks $35,000
Cost of the energy plant upgrades without tax breaks $54,000
Achieved Savings after four years $23,720
Projected savings after six years (cost parity) $38,196
Projected savings after nine years (cost parity with no subsidies) $59,910
Projected savings after 30 years $155,980
Projected savings after 30 years (adjusted for rising gas and electricity cost) $445,000

Multiply our experience by 100 million American households and you have national energy independence, a much healthier, cleaner USA, and much wealthier families and a country.
That’s our experience and our simple road map, take a drive with us :)
Thank you Stellar Solar and BMW Mini-E for making this a reality.

Cheers
Peder
Mini-E # 183, 30,000 sunshine powered miles