{"id":20129,"date":"2018-05-11T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T04:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=20129"},"modified":"2021-02-24T12:58:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T02:28:00","slug":"solar-payback-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-payback-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Payback Time For Each Australian Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21436 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback.jpg\" alt=\"Simple solar payback\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback-1024x512.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The cost of rooftop solar continues to fall despite the fact that the Australian dollar has been falling too.\u00a0 It has been a while since I&#8217;ve harped on about how cost effective rooftop solar is, so I stayed up all night to make beautiful graphs of the simple solar payback time in every capital city.\u00a0 In other words I will show you how many years it will take the savings on your electricity bills to cover the cost of your solar power system.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll have to wait until towards the end of the article to see just how beautiful my graph turned out<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-payback-times\/#en-20129-1' id='enref-20129-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(20129)'>1<\/a><\/sup>, but using what I consider reasonable assumptions I got some interesting results.\u00a0 One of them is that in Adelaide a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/5kw\/\">5 kilowatt solar system<\/a> has a simple payback period of only 4 years.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Simple Payback?<\/h2>\n<p>I decided to calculate simple payback periods rather than other methods of examining cost, mainly because it&#8217;s simple.\u00a0 The basic idea is very easy to grasp &#8212; after <strong>X<\/strong> amount of time the money saved on electricity bills will equal the cost of your solar power system.\u00a0 This leaves some things out such as the cost of capital, so the real payback time will actually be slightly longer, but including that complicates things as the cost of capital varies between people.\u00a0 The cost of having systems inspected or maintained is also ignored, but the simple payback time can be so short this won&#8217;t be an issue.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s Needed To Determine Solar Payback Time<\/h2>\n<p>To calculate the simple payback period I need to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Decide on the size of the solar power system.<\/li>\n<li>Decide its cost.<\/li>\n<li>Determine a reasonable price for grid electricity in every capital.<\/li>\n<li>Decide on an appropriate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/feed-in-tariffs\/\">solar feed-in tariff<\/a> for every capital.<\/li>\n<li>Decide how much solar electricity a household will self consume.<\/li>\n<li>Work out how many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/glossary.html#kwh\">kilowatt-hours<\/a> of electricity the system will generate in each capital.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>System Size Is 5 Kilowatts<\/h2>\n<p>I will use a system size of 5 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/glossary.html#kw\">kilowatts<\/a> of solar panel capacity for my graph.\u00a0 Usually I recommend installing more than 5 kilowatts of panels if there&#8217;s room on your roof.\u00a0 With a 5 kilowatt solar inverter you can install up to 6.66 kilowatts of panels so I consider it a good idea to get around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/6kw\/\">6.5 kilowatts<\/a> of panels if you can.\u00a0 But 5 kilowatts is a nice round figure, it&#8217;s not too far off the average size of solar systems, and it has been used for these sort of estimates in the past, so I&#8217;ll stick with it.<\/p>\n<h2>5 Kilowatts For $6,500<\/h2>\n<p>I have decided the the 5 kilowatt system will cost $6,500.\u00a0 This is not an unusual price for a 5 kilowatt system these days.\u00a0 You can pay more for higher quality, but I&#8217;ll assume this is for someone who is budget conscious.\u00a0 I would be wary of paying too much below this price unless you know the installer is reliable and does good work because of the potentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/cheapsystems.html\">high cost of cheap solar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a one price fits all capitals deal.\u00a0 This assumption is a little unrealistic as households in Melbourne and Hobart receive fewer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/glossary.html#stc\">STCs<\/a> that lower the cost of rooftop solar than in other capitals, but I am keeping the price the same everywhere to allow easy comparisons.<\/p>\n<p>Homes in Darwin get more STCs than in other capitals, but solar tends to be expensive there.\u00a0 There are a couple of reasons why and one of them is it costs more to make systems cyclone resistant.<\/p>\n<h2>Cost Of Grid Electricity<\/h2>\n<p>Perth, Hobart, and Darwin all have fixed electricity prices and solar feed-in tariffs, which makes things simple for those capitals.\u00a0 For Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne I simply used Origin Energy&#8217;s Solar Boost retail electricity plan.\u00a0 I did this because Origin is Australia&#8217;s largest electricity retailer and so a lot of people will already be on this plan.\u00a0 I also chose it because it has high solar feed-in tariffs.\u00a0 But there are a couple of warnings about it I feel I need to give:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It is the Solar Boost plan and not Solar Boost Plus which gives higher feed-in tariffs, but only for 12 months and only for people who have bought a solar power system from Origin.<\/li>\n<li>After 12 months on Solar Boost they will dump you to a lower feed-in tariff.\u00a0 At the moment it appears you can just call them up and get them to put you back on Solar Boost, but it is annoying and I almost used a competitor of theirs instead because of this. But then I realized they may not be any better as this sort of behavior is very common among electricity retailers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I used a standard tariff which means a flat-rate is paid rate per kilowatt-hour of electricity used.\u00a0 This makes sense because households with solar are usually better off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/time-of-use-pricing\/\">on a standard tariff than a time-of-use<\/a> one.\u00a0 This can change if a household gets batteries, but they don&#8217;t pay for themselves yet, so I won&#8217;t worry about that.<\/p>\n<p>The prices of electricity in cents per kilowatt-hour after any discounts are applied are:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21421 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gridprice.jpg\" alt=\"Cost of grid electricity\" width=\"896\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gridprice.jpg 896w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gridprice-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gridprice-768x463.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Adelaide is clearly the champion of high prices here while Canberra has the cheapest grid electricity of all.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Feed-In Tariffs<\/h2>\n<p>Solar feed-in tariffs, either fixed or from Origin&#8217;s Solar Boost plans are:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21419 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/feedin.jpg\" alt=\"Feed-in tariffs\" width=\"898\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/feedin.jpg 898w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/feedin-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/feedin-768x462.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 898px) 100vw, 898px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, Darwin really stands out as their feed-in tariff is equal to the cost of their grid electricity.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the only high feed-in tariff still available in the country &#8211; with the potential<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-payback-times\/#en-20129-2' id='enref-20129-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(20129)'>2<\/a><\/sup> exception of rural and remote areas in Western Australia.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Self Consumption<\/h2>\n<p>I have decided households will self consume 25% of the solar electricity they generate.\u00a0 This is around the average for a home with a 5 kilowatt system.\u00a0 The higher the rate of self consumption, the faster a solar panel system will pay for itself because not using one kilowatt-hour of grid electricity lowers electricity bills by more than sending one kilowatt-hour of electricity into the grid.\u00a0 Except in Darwin.\u00a0 There the rate of self consumption doesn&#8217;t matter as the feed-in tariff and the price of grid electricity are the same.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Energy Generation<\/h2>\n<p>For the amount of solar electricity generated in each capital I have used 95% of the figure given by the <a href=\"https:\/\/pvwatts.nrel.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PVWatts<\/a> site for north facing solar.\u00a0 I have used 95% rather than 100% because not every system may perform as well as PVWatts expects and because not every home can set all their panels facing directly north.<\/p>\n<p>The figures PVWatts gives for each capital in kilowatt-hours per year, less 5%, are:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21417 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/output.jpg\" alt=\"Solar power system output\" width=\"899\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/output.jpg 899w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/output-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/output-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 899px) 100vw, 899px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Money Saved Per Year<\/h2>\n<p>Using the information I&#8217;ve gathered and the assumptions I&#8217;ve settled upon, I can calculate how much money a 5 kilowatt system will save per year in each capital:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21415 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/peryear.jpg\" alt=\"Money saved per year\" width=\"900\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/peryear.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/peryear-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/peryear-768x459.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>My Beautiful Graph Of Simple Solar Payback Times<\/h2>\n<p>Using the figures for money saved per year I&#8217;m finally I&#8217;m able to construct my beautiful graph of simple payback time calculations:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21410 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/simplepayback.jpg\" alt=\"Solar payback\" width=\"899\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/simplepayback.jpg 899w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/simplepayback-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/simplepayback-768x460.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 899px) 100vw, 899px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, Adelaide is the state capital with the fastest payback time thanks to the highest grid electricity prices in the country, but Darwin is the clear winner thanks to their high feed-in tariff.\u00a0 Hobart has the worst result, which isn&#8217;t surprising given that solar in Tasmania has the lowest output in the country and their feed-in tariff is not high.\u00a0 Melbourne actually does well considering it is the mainland capital with the least sunshine.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this is due to electricity price hikes rather than <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/aQUlA8Hcv4s?t=20s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mister Blue Sky<\/a> deciding to spend more time there.\u00a0 Increased feed-in tariffs have also helped.<\/p>\n<p>A surprising result is, despite having the highest solar output, Perth has the longest simple payback period on the mainland.\u00a0 This is due to their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9OrS5Ym6vzU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mediocre<\/a> electricity price and the lowest feed-in tariff in the country.<\/p>\n<h2>It&#8217;s Possible To Do Better<\/h2>\n<p>The simplest way to improve payback times is to increase self consumption of solar electricity (except in Darwin).\u00a0 This is particularly effective in places like Perth where the feed-in tariff is very low.\u00a0 Smaller solar systems can result in a shorter payback time by increasing self consumption.\u00a0 But this may not be a good idea economically because even if a 5 kilowatt solar power system has a 7 year simple payback period it may still be better than any other investment the household can make.<\/p>\n<h2>A Moment Frozen In Time<\/h2>\n<p>These simple payback periods are calculated based upon conditions as they are now.\u00a0 As electricity prices and feed-in tariffs change so will they.\u00a0 Electricity prices are set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/electricity-prices-wa-mb0581\/#more-21388\">rise in Western Australia<\/a> while they are expected to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-feed-tariffs-likely-fall-within-3-years\/\">fall<\/a> in other states along with feed-in tariffs.\u00a0 While they are only a snapshot and not set in stone, they can still be a useful guide and you can bump them up or down depending on how pessimistic or optimistic you are feeling.<\/p>\n<h2>What The Future May Bring<\/h2>\n<p>While the rate at which solar power hardware falls in price will eventually slow, I&#8217;m confident we&#8217;ll see at least a decade more of impressive price falls.\u00a0 But note the fall in solar panels from 60 cents a watt to 30 cents a watt will feel less impressive than when they fell from $6 a watt to $3.\u00a0 Given how cheap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/\">solar panels<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/inverters\/\">inverters<\/a> already are, there is no benefit in waiting for their price to fall further before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/solar101.html\">getting solar installed<\/a>.\u00a0 You will always lose more in electricity savings than you will gain by waiting for a lower price in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cost of rooftop solar continues to fall despite the fact that the Australian dollar has been falling too.\u00a0 It has been a while since I&#8217;ve harped on about how cost effective rooftop solar is, so I stayed up all night to make beautiful graphs of the simple solar payback time in every capital city.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Solar Power System Payback Times For Australian Capital Cities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover what typical solar payback is where you live. Conservative calculations for electricity generation and self consumption.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-payback-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solar Payback Time For Each Australian Capital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover what typical solar payback is where you live. Conservative calculations for electricity generation and self consumption.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-payback-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-11T04:34:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-24T02:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-payback.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald Brakels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrakelsRonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ronald Brakels\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d0ce1779b3f5cb67cb4f146732af2fc7\"},\"headline\":\"Solar Payback Time For Each Australian Capital\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-11T04:34:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-24T02:28:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1642,\"commentCount\":28,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/solar-payback.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Economics Of Solar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/\",\"name\":\"Solar Power System Payback Times For Australian Capital Cities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-payback-times\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/solar-payback.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-11T04:34:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-24T02:28:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Discover what typical solar payback is where you live. 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