Surging electricity rates and wildfires sparked by providers are pushing more Californians off the grid, lured by the sinking cost of solar power.
Solar panel costs have fallen by more than half in the past two decades, to under $4 a watt from $11.40, the New York Times reported, citing the California Solar and Storage Association. A full off-grid system could range from $35,000 to $100,000.
“People want to have that self-reliance,” Diane Vukovic, who has done research for survival and preparedness website Primal Survivor, told the newspaper. “It’s become so much cheaper and easier that at this point, there’s very little reason not to do it if you have the means to make the investment now.”
Granted, almost all the 100,000 or so homes built every year in the state remain on the grid, according to David Hochschild, chairman of the California Energy Commission. Others say solar doesn’t help reduce greenhouse gas emissions because excess electricity from the panels doesn’t reach the grid to replace coal or natural gas plants.
“We don’t need everybody to cut the cord and go it alone,” said Mark Dyson, senior principal with the carbon-free electricity unit of RMI, told the Times.
Yet it has plenty of adherents. Wim Coekaerts, who lives in the small San Mateo County city of Woodside, said PG&E told him it would be about $400,000 for electric service and a trench for the line. Instead, he spent $300,000 after tax credits to go solar.
A year later, his neighbors have lost power three times – and he’s been fine, using solar power to charge his two Teslas without rationing power. He’s even taken to mining bitcoin.
[New York Times] — Gabriel Poblete
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