Solar panels: producing electricity has become profitable

This article comes from Capital magazine

Slowly but surely, the number of individuals equipped with solar panels continues to progress.They were 435.000 at the end of 2020, 7% more than a year earlier.It must be said that technical progress now makes it possible to envisage such installations even in areas where the sunshine does not exceed 1.400 hours per year, far from the 2.800 hours of the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur).Like our witness to the Oise, which used its independent garage to place almost 17 square meters of photovoltaic cells.

Some conditions are still to be observed, to start, of course, by being the owner of a house, and having a roof, preferably devoid of asbestos.But a terrace away from the building can also do the trick.The orientation of the roof plays: ideal south, even if the panels can operate up to 90 degrees to the east or the west.Count 20 square meters per range of 3 kilowatts-key (KWC)-unit of performance measurement of the installation in optimal conditions-, while taking into account the area-blocked by a fireplace, for example.""If possible, we must cover the entire roof, explains Xavier Daval, president of the Solar Commission of the Syndicate of Renewable Energies (SER).To better amortize the fixed installation costs, but also because it is aesthetically more harmonious.""

The equipment, turnkey, will cost you 7.500 euros (or 3 kilowatt-short, ideal for a home of four people) at 13.500 euros (6 kilowatts-writers, for the same family but with as many electrical devices as possible, such as heating and hot water, or a swimming pool and a vehicle), or even 17.500 euros for the largest power plants, 9 kilowatts-key.This price will of course include solar panels, but also the inverter, which transforms the direct current into alternating current, and various electrical protections.

An additional cost, up to 2.Euros, is not excluded if the installer must make a long trip, or if your roof is difficult to access.Nothing prevents you from taking care of the site.Then count.900 to 3.600 euros for the panels, for 3 kilowatts-heads installed. ""Mieux vaut réaliser le montage à deux personnes, mais l'opération peut se faire en une après-midi, grâce au branchement en plug-and-play permis par les coffrets précâblés"", assure Thierry Cieutat, cofondateur de Mon Kit solaire.

In the case, the most delicate will be to decide on the future of the electricity produced.Indeed, while, until 2017, only the total resale of energy to EDF, at a guaranteed price, was authorized, it is now possible to consume its production directly, to resell only the excess notused.And one as the other choice then engages you over twenty years.The installer can provide you with detailed simulations, but know that the second option now prevails most often.And that the first, that of total resale, is hardly chosen only by the owners of secondary residences, or by those who are too absent during the day to sufficiently exploit their production.

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Self -consumption indeed benefits from serious boost: a premium for installation first, granted by the State and distributed over five years, varying from 1.140 to 2.520 euros depending on the power of the installation, provided that a craftsman labeled RGE (recognized guarantor of the environment) intervened.But also prices for redempting the surplus electricity, set since the departure at 10 cents per kilowatt hour, and then guaranteed for twenty years. ""Certains de nos clients préfèrent se tourner vers d'autres opérateurs qu'EDF; ils le rachètent moins cher, mais sont 100% verts"", explique Thierry Cieutat.

This is the case of planet yes, which pays 6.5 cents of Euro per kilowatt hour.You should expect to consume 80% of its production, and therefore to reinject 20% in the network.Ie 80 to 150 euros in more income each year, in the case of an installation of 3 kilowatts-key.An appreciable bonus, even if the main financial lever of this type of installation is simply ... in the EDF invoice saving, carried out by consuming its own electrons.This gain can only grow, at the same time as the foreseeable increase in the regulated price of EDF (Blue rate).Thus, by tabling on an annual inflation of 3%, the energy resulting from an installation of 3 kilowatt-heads in Nice will save 625 euros the first year… and 906 euros per twentieth, in 2040.An economy which will pass within the same period of 516 to 762 euros per year on the side of Bordeaux, and will climb further from 421 to 622 euros annually in Lille.

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All aid included, it would thus be possible to amortize its installation in eight to ten years, even if a period of four to five years is sometimes enough.Of course, credit funding, as is most often the case, keeps up the deadline. ""Nous avons calculé nos aides incitatives pour des investissements sur vingt ans, résume le ministère de la Transition écologique.But in fact, the lifespan can be greater.""As in the case of our witness, the production of solar panels is most often guaranteed for twenty-five years, up to 80% of their linear potential.And, at the end of the buyout period guaranteed by EDF, you can always resell other operators.

Note: it is possible, from the start, to refuse any injection of the surplus, which notably avoids having to go through a communicating counter of the Linky type.Owners in areas conducive to power cuts often use this option. ""Ils sont alors sûrs de ne plus être privés de chauffage en hiver"", résume Marc Vaucour, cofondateur du bureau d'études Elhona, spécialisé dans les économies d'énergie.But such a choice, which prevents from valuing the surplus of production, then plans the gains to wait.They would no longer be, according to SIA Partners, than 15.7% of the EDF invoice per year, instead of 19.1% in cases of reinjection of the surplus.

In the Oise, this roof produces 15% of the home electricity consumption

In 2017, it only took one day to pose 10 sunscreen on the roof of the Garage de Marina and Jean-François Billey.A turnkey installation in hand (building permit, prerequisite for work, creation of file at ENEDIS, etc.) made by SUNELIS, a specialist in the Lille periphery, commissioned by market place in Sun We Trust. ""L’efficacité avec laquelle ils ont travaillé nous a tout de suite mis en confiance"", se rappelle Jean-François.Despite a lower sunshine in this region north of Paris and a gas heating mode, the 3kilowatts-crete power station is a good deal for the home, which uses an electric car.

Having chosen self -consumption, he abdemated 1.170 euros of premium, or almost 17% of the installation cost of 7.Euros.Their consumption reflected by 15%, to 17.988kilowattheures.Raboting the EDF note of more than 420 euros per year, at 2.493 euros.The resale to EDF of the surplus also brings them 138 euros per year.They will thus amortize the panels after ten years if the regulated price of EDF remains stable.And in a little less than nine years if, as it is likely, this rate increased, by 3% per year.