Did we just lose $7 billion for solar? | Hacker News Reader

Did we just lose $7 billion for solar?

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19 pointslr012 comments

Glad I got rooftop solar on the cheap during the previous administration, even in summer here in Florida my electricity bill barely registers. I don't know a single person here that doesn't regret getting it back when the interest was 1%, now with electricity prices going up and incentives being taken down there isn't much to be done anymore.

What’s the net difference though? Most of my neighbors with solar I have spoken to (central FL) are at basically a wash between payment for the solar vs power bills pre-solar, although admittedly recent rate hikes are probably changing that mix a bit. Many of them basically made the finance term to the useful life of the panels. One neighbor that tried to sell and had a couple offers contingent on solar removal.

It just feels to me to be very nearly zero sum game financially, with even a bit of adverse risk leaning towards opting for a solar installation considering potential for roof warranty and insurance issues due to some of the less reputable providers/installers out there. Certainly if the reputation of the technology takes a hit, a barrier to selling your home could be a pain point as well.

I’ll say this, I don’t hear any regret, but for me these things are a barrier to adoption unless I was planning on being in the home for a longer (20+ years) term and wasn’t financing the system.

The difference is huge, I'm paying 180 on the financing, 10 years, 4k square feet home, all year (plus the 33 duke asks to be connected to the network) and i like it at 74F year around. Sometimes when the summer is too bad i pay some extra but back when I moved here in 2020 my first electricity bill in august was 500 bucks, so not installing solar would have been a stupid decision, my highest bill was around 750 in 2021.

Not sure when your friends got it but everyone that got it in 2021 here (Winter Garden area) have been saving since the day it was turned on.

Yeah can see how that would help. We built in a neighborhood where the builder was building super high efficiency homes so that might be influencing the chatter around me. Downsized now since our kids are all out of the house to 2100 square feet, no pool, and we have similar daytime AC habits but cooler at night. Last bill was around $160/mo and like $110-120 in “not summer”.

While we were building this house (2017) we rented an older home about 2200 square feet (built 1999) the bill was running around $350 during summer. If I was running that level and could replace with 180/mo across 10 years, I’d definitely do it despite my other reservations.

yeah, under 200 here was mostly fall to winter, so like 3 months tops. we also have no natural gas here so everything is electric, which made it an even better option. if we didn't have kids and in laws here we'd have switched to an electric car as well, its just too good.

if they kill the "sell at the same price of buy" for power we might have to install batteries to make ends meet but so far the credits are doing their job.

The huge new import tax on solar panels from China will do more damage to solar projects than a change in subsidies.

https://archive.ph/I2Yl9

On the bright side, at least it was solar money. It only works during the day and disappears at night anyway.

Subsidies are not the big item. Solar doesn't need subsidies any more. It's Trump's huge tariffs on solar panels.[1] 54% on China. 3500% on Cambodia.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/business/us-tariffs-southeast...

Of course it needs subsidies, it's competing with other forms of energy generation that are either heavily subsidized, freed from the cost of their externalities, or both.

Bingo. Solar isn't competing in a fair playing field. We've been subsidizing energy for decades and people seem to have forgotten that we do so.

The fossil fuel industry holds sway in the current US administration, which has also blatantly shown corruption by Middle East oil producers. Let the US choke on antiquated technologies. Oil, gas, coal will have a purpose forever but clean energy will be something the rest of the world gets to enjoy more.

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