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Comment by saidinesh5

12 hours ago

The link isn't available here. Can you share the specs and price of that panel?

I'm in the US and it's showing a 100W panel for USD 37.21 (free shipping, including tariffs but not state/local taxes).

Also the panels Carter installed were solar water heaters - in 1979 solar photovoltaics were just starting to expand beyond satellites and cost like $40/watt.

  • it's actually $33 because there's a $4 coupon available to everyone on the page

    and if you buy 2 at a time there are multiple 10% codes available

    so it's $67 USD for 200watts

    100watt 18volt 5amp panels that can be put in series or parallel

    for $33 each, it's crazy

100W 18V for $37 and change.

  • If we can get balcony solar in the US that will be a huge game changer.

    • Subtropical latitudes in continental US markets, you're looking at like $2/yr/sq ft of value for the power output.

      I'd want solar panels for like $5/sq ft installed, expecting 10 years of life.

      It's going to cost $1000 minimum to install, so the panels need to cost $2/sq ft x 300 sq ft to make this worth it. $1000 to install 300 sq ft + inverter and electrical panel upgrades seems light but might be reasonable we'll go with it.

      Larger than a balcony, but maybe in the realm of possibility for a roof.

      Right now solar panels cost what? $10 per square foot? Have they reached the physical limit of economic production/storage/transportation at $10 per sq ft or can it go lower?

      (Let's not get into battery micro-storage economics).

$37.21 for a 100 watt panel with free shipping. I'm not sure if that is before or after 50% tariffs and/or the 10% "fentanyl" extra tariff that was announced a few days after Ross Ulbricht's pardon for running the world's largest opiates-by-mail operation.

  • You can buy brand new in bulk in the US for roughly the same $/watt.

    I bought 30 375w Canadian Solar panels 2 years ago and paid $0.41/watt (~$4536 for the whole package)

    My mounting equipment actually cost more than the panels (~$4600). And the permitting process cost nearly as much as the panels (permit cost + architectural drawing + structural engineer stamp + electrician stamp).

    It's crazy how cheap solar panels themselves are getting. They're going to win on the energy front - period. Especially now that battery tech actually seems to be moving again. I vividly remember one of my robotics professors in undergrad ranting about how frustrated he was with battery tech in ~2007, but LFP and sodium batteries are both pretty huge steps forward.

    • Another data point: my entire system in Switzerland cost me 1.3CHF/Watt including a 20kWh battery and 5000 CHF of scaffolding costs (needed because of our local OSHA equivalent laws when installing panels on a tilted roof).

      It has become ridiculously cheap indeed.

      2 replies →

    • How much does power and grid delivery cost in Canada to make this economical? You're into this for $15,000 what is your payback period? Are there other ameliorating criteria for success?

      2 replies →

  • Heck even if that’s pre-tariff it’s cheap enough that it could be an impulse buy.

  • it's from a US warehouse so there are no tariffs (or they've already been paid/included)