American solar installer companies do seem to charge way more than European or British ones. I got 3.9kW installed almost ten years ago for just £5500, including all the paperwork for feed-in-tariffs. It has long since paid for itself just in subsidy, let alone actual consumption.

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jeffbee 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In general, contractor overhead in America is obscene, compared to Europe. We have a lot of regularly capture working to keep it that way, too.

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bredren a few seconds ago | parent | next [-]

I am counting on physical, semi technical contract work to pay once SWE opportunities shrink to the point where it’s not worth it anymore.

Now is the time to get handy if not already.

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atourgates 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

DIY is viable if you're a bit nutters (like me).

I just paid ~$35k (pre-now-expired-tax-break) to install a grid-tied 25kw ground mount system. I DIY'd everything except the connection between the array and the grid, which I paid an electrician to do, and the trenching which I paid my buddy with a mini-excavator to do.

It was a bit of a PITA, but mostly because I didn't finally make up my mind to do it until October and had to have it constructed by Dec 31st to take advantage of the expiring tax credit. If I'd given myself 6 months, it would have still been a big project, but way less stressful.

My neighbor's paid the same price to a contractor for a 11kw system.

Even at 46°N, and with relatively cheap electricity, my system should pay for itself in 6-8 years.

	▲	cuttothechase an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Do you have a blog or a writeup about this? What would have been the cost if it was not DIY'd? Is this doable only in a rural/semi-urban settings?
	▲	jeffbee 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Being an honorary or actual redneck in an exurban American setting will be the sweet spot for this. Your neighbor's rusting Bobcat is not useless after all. You have the space for ground mounting. I toyed with a rooftop solar DIY project with an electrician handling the AC side, but in my urban context PG&E wanted a six-figure fee for a subterranean transformer upgrade. In 2024 the state regulator established rules that PG&E can't charge for that kind of service upgrade so maybe I should start considering it again.

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scottyah 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It all comes back to insurance- they're used to getting crazy sums of money because nobody questions the rates

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jauntywundrkind 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We looked at trying to get some mini-split heat pumps for my mom's place & were getting quotes $30k figures for two modest units (it's a tiny well insulated house). I don't know what the frak is wrong with this nation; this is so fantastically worrying.

	▲	rootusrootus an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		HVAC is wildly variable, even more so than other trades in my experience. Get several quotes, there will be five digit differences between the top and bottom.
	▲	projektfu an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Try looking up HVAC workers on thumbtack.

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danans 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> American solar installer companies do seem to charge way more than European or British ones

One of the reasons for this is that in many parts of the US, solar has sadly been market segmented as a luxury product, just like other high efficiency products like heat pumps or EVs.

This is enabled by both the prevailing cultural attitudes about efficiency and renewables as indulgences for the better off, and industries that are happy to keep captive high margin markets of those customers, i.e. the continued lack of a US produced low-cost EV.

The American cult of individualism is also at play, wherein collective solutions are shunned vs private ones, which is why renewables and storage are so popular among off grid libertarian types.