Solar Power in 2024

2024 was the first full year that we have had solar power running at our house. We have sixteen 400 watt panels on our roof - eleven facing south, and five facing west. Combined, they are capable of generating up to 6.4 kWh, but this is rare since they don't all get direct sun at the same time. In 2024, the highest was 4.7 kWh on 23rd June, which was a very sunny day. 

From the chart below for 23rd June you can see that we generated 37.84 kWh (green line) which covered almost all consumption during the day. 80% of what was generated was fed back to the grid for which we are paid €6.41. You can also see that there was very high consumption during the night - this was from charging my car. I don't charge during the day because we get approximately 19.5c/kWh for excess fed to grid, but are charged at night rates for 9.65c/kWh from 00:02 - 00:04, and 16.44c/kWh from 00:00-00.02 and 00:04 - 08:00. The consumption rate below is just under 8 kWh, or 64 kW for the night. 

The total cost of charging the car was €9.43 approx. 64 kW should do just over 400 km in range in the summer - this equates to about €2.36/100 km. Compared to today's prices for petrol (€1.88/litre), and using a rate of 5 litres/100km, 100km in a petrol powered car would cost €9.40 - almost exactly four times the cost of my electric car. Charging at 02:00-00:40 only would bring my cost down further. Clear evidence that charging at home saves a lot of money!

For the year, the chart below shows the figures for the year. Not surprisingly, power generated in the winter months was very low, and much better in the summer months. Our yield from solar power for the year was 4.50 MWh, nice that we did not have to pay for this! Our consumption was 7.33 KWh, which is very high compared to average households, but charging the car accounts for a huge amount of this.

We get 19.50c for each kWh from micro-generation - for the year this total amount was just over €700 (unfortunately this is taxable). This, combined with not having to pay for electricity when the sun is shining and car-charging economies, means substantial savings are being made. We expect the cost of the solar panels will pay for itself in another 2-3 years.