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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

Dominated by labor costs, right? It'll probably just keep going up at this point, even if the panel cost went to zero.

A lot of the "labor" costs are just regulatory/permitting in disguise. An expedited approval regime with standards such that, permits-wise, installing solar panels was as easy as installing an EV charger would save a ton of money.

Matt Ferrell just did a video on this recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3eEzdpi12I

This has me thinking about parking a box truck in my driveway plastered in solar panels and plugged into the house.

One of my neighbors has this, I've always wondered why it was like this until now.

This is significantly more over-built than what you are describing, but there is a company building along this idea[0]. Trailer you can drag to location, unfurl the solar panels which then charge the batteries. Being marketed for disasters and military.

[0] https://www.sesame.solar/

That actually sounds like a viable regulatory hack. Technically an "EV" with "V2G capability", but actually it's a truck full of batteries with solar panels hanging off it.

Your local homeowners association would like a word.

also a distinctly American regulatory entity!

Eh, it's not unique, it's just that the American ones seem to be so much more empowered, excessive, and capable of generating news and social media headlines.

The UK variant seems to have more traditional failure modes of "excessive charges for maintenance of communal areas": https://parliamentnews.co.uk/tales-of-intimidation-excessive... , but people are still capable of having the occasional fistfight or protracted legal dispute about the wrong kind of hedge in a more informal, adhoc way.

Following the great american "mobile home" tradition. Slap a couple wheels under any object and it is magically removed from countless regulatory rules.

Just lookout for tornadoes.

I've seen some promising results from solar fences. Because the panels are getting so cheap you can offset the efficiency loss by buying more. Plus, because they are vertical and double sided they get more sunlight earlier and later in the day.

A great explainer, but I can't help but notice all the claude-isms in his dialogue now.

Generally correct. Here in Washington I could get Signature Solar to ship me 31 excellent Canadian Solar bifacial panels on a pallet for $9200 plus tax and shipping (so add another grand or so). This would be 21kW of solar (plus a bit if bifacial gain kicks in), which is a ton - you could even do some winter work with that, if angled correctly.

This setup would cost north of $50k (possibly north of $75k, depending) if installed by contractors. Labor costs are extremely high here, since COL is extremely high.

Interestingly, in the UK you can get 31 JA solar bifacial panels for ~£2k+VAT including shipping (https://www.solartradesales.co.uk/ja-solar-455w-n-type-bifac...), so around $2.6k.

You're scooping up a lot of regulation and red tape in that "labor" bucket.

That's fair. I really meant 'installation' I suppose.

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