I know real people who have installed solar panels on their roofs, but I’m too lazy to research the details — which change daily, anyway. It’s easier and more flexible to imagine a typical example.
So I’ve made up a person who has just spent a great deal of money to go all-out solar. We’ll call this person Bruce — no relation to any real person.
Soon after the election, our hero heard Donald Trump talking about eliminating solar credits. Bruce had planned solar conversion for a long time, but it’s very expensive and … you know, inertia. But with solar tax credits ending and tariffs arriving, Bruce decided to go electric in a big way.
He ordered solar panels back in December. The cost of panels is way down, but electrical installation and accompanying equipment is up. The projected cost was more than $40,000. That’s a lot, but we’ll get to the long-term savings.
Most people can’t afford $40,000-plus even if it will pay off, but you can borrow. Instead of paying your gas and electric bills, you make a loan payment. If your loan payment is less than your electric and gas bills, you’re ahead. But even if they aren’t, you can look forward to a time when your loan is paid off and everything is free.
There are ways to get loans for solar projects, but Bruce got his loan from himself. He sold off stocks in his retirement fund and paid with cash. Isn’t that risky? Maybe. It depends on the benefits and payback time.
Another way to pay part of the cost of “green” investments is with tax credits. There is a New Mexico solar credit of up to 10 percent and a federal one of 30 percent. But the Republican Congress may eliminate the federal credits. Usually tax changes take place gradually, starting the year after they are passed. If Congress passed tax changes effective in the middle of this year, businesses would have a hard time planning costs and making investments. That would be crazy. Right?
Most people buying solar panels study their electrical use and get enough panels to supply it, but Bruce isn’t going halfway. He’s planning a complete change that eliminates gasoline and natural gas, and offsets higher electric use with solar production. He’ll never get another gas bill, and never go to a gas station — whatever that is.
He starts by replacing his pickup with an electric car that looks and runs like a muscle car, but he’s turned the back and one of the rear seats into a work space full of tools and supplies.
Silver City is an unusually friendly place for electric cars. There is free, fast charging at WNMU and free slow charging at the Visitor Center. But the most convenient charging is at your home. Equipment and installation is expensive, but with solar panels, charging will be almost free.
That works locally, but not when traveling. Charging stations aren’t nearly as ubiquitous or reliable as gas stations. You have to plan carefully. Recharging on the road is cheaper than gas, but considerably slower and less convenient.
Bruce’s old house had natural gas for the furnace, range, dryer and water heater, and electricity for the swamp cooler. That’s gone now, except for the furnace and cooler, which will soon be replaced with an electric heat pump. Not only does he have to buy new equipment — selling the old stuff doesn’t offset it — but installing new electric lines is expensive. He’s expecting to spend more than $10,000, most of it for the heat pump.
A lot of the new stuff comes from China. Bruce got in just before the tariffs. You might pay more now for a comparable system.
How’s it going? It’s early to judge, but so far, the solar panels seem on course to generate several times the electricity he’s using. He’ll be paying about $12 a month in fees and taxes, but nothing for power. He’ll generate a lot more during the summer — more than enough to offset the increased cost of refrigerated air. Will less generated electricity in the winter exceed the increased electricity for heating? Probably, but we’ll see. Meanwhile, the power company is getting a lot of free power from Bruce’s panels. They used to pay for that excess, but now they don’t.
We’ve taken our imaginary friend through a big lifestyle change without once mentioning climate change. Bruce doesn’t mind saving the world on the side, but he made this big change in hopes of greater comfort and less cost. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to imagine similar changes on a national scale. Only time (and imagination) will tell whether this will work out for Bruce, and for all of us.
