Hacker News Reader

Comment by torginus | Hacker News Reader

Solar is super cheap nowadays - you can have a complete 5kW solar install with an 5kWh battery for around $2000 + labor. I'd argue a similar proportion of people have their own houses.

Additionally, a level 2 charger is just a high amperage wall socket plus some safety equipment.

View on HN

This is incredibly misleading. The average price per solar install is $3/W so your 5kWh is probably much closer to $15k. Additionally, "+ labor" is actually 66% of the price of solar in the USA (soft costs + balance of system). Could you do the labor yourself? Of course. Do you have the time and tools? Probably not. Is saying "$2000 + labor" false? Technically, no, functionally, yes. All numbers taken from [1]. These do not include batteries in the install.

[1] - https://www.solar.com/learn/solar-panel-cost/

we're talking about mexico, not the weirdly over-inflated home solar price of the US. For eg australia is around ~ $1/w installed, and they have high labor costs. It doesnt have to be expensive, the US makes it so somehow.

(I would genuinely like an explanation for why it’s so much more expensive in the US. Australia is not cheap for basically anything - high materials and labor cost comparatively. I don’t understand how solar in the US costs so much more. )

Since Trump’s first term, the US has had 25% tariffs on solar panels from China and a few other countries, which certainly wouldn’t be helping.

That said, the Australia price seems particularly cheap; is that before grants and things? In Ireland, say, it’s typically 1.5-2eur/W before grant (grant is .7eur/W up to 2kW, .2eur/W up to 4kW, capped at 1800).

Panels In The US are ultra cheap. It's mostly the labor and some of inverters and what not that's expensive

Reply on news.ycombinator.com