I think community solar gardens beat rooftop panels for most people

After helping my sister set up a rooftop system in Phoenix last year and then joining a community solar garden near Tucson, I have to say the garden wins. My sister spent $18,000 on her panels and inverter, and she still has to clean them and deal with shade from her neighbor's tree. My community garden cost me nothing upfront and I get credits on my electric bill every month. The garden also uses tracking mounts that follow the sun, so they produce about 25 percent more power than a fixed roof system. Has anyone else compared the two approaches and come to a different conclusion?

3 comments

3 Comments

wade_anderson6d ago

$18k is a lot but panels last 25 years plus and that system still pays for itself long before that. Rooftop solar also protects you from rate hikes since you own the power directly, while community gardens can change their pricing structure whenever they want. You're basically renting your energy savings instead of owning them.

knight.uma6d ago

Did your installer not mention the monitoring app? I got mine set up and for the first 6 months I was obsessed with checking it every day to see how much power we were making. Then I realized I was spending more time watching the app than actually enjoying the savings. Now I just glance at it when the electric bill comes and go "huh, nice." Feels like buying a fancy espresso machine - you think you're gonna be a barista but really you just want coffee without leaving the house.

zaranelson6d ago

i mean i get what you're saying @wade_anderson but i just dont see it that way. owning panels locks you into one system and if something breaks or the tech gets way better in 10 years you're stuck with old stuff. community solar lets you leave whenever and you don't have to front 18k which is a huge chunk of change for most people. plus renting energy savings is fine if the savings are still real and you dont have to worry about maintenance or roof damage from installation. not everyone has 18k laying around or wants to deal with the hassle of owning a whole system.