The Cost of Solar Panels: Is It Worth It?

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A summary and Analysis of Nathaniel Riley’s article “The Cost of Solar Panels: Is It Worth It?”
The debate about solar panels is inextricably linked to the ongoing emotionally charged debate about climate change. Having said that, it suffices to note that the climate change debate has unfortunately become marred by inaccurate information aimed at sowing confusion and frustrating the process of finding a consensus on the best way forward. Experts refer to this phenomenon as ‘strategic ignorance’ – an attempt by vested capital to generate vast quantities of new and competing knowledge refuting other emerging or existing knowledge they deem detrimental to their interests (Mallard and McGoey 885; McGoey 534). The goal behind generating strategic ignorance is primarily to sow doubt about scientific information in a manner that makes consensus-building difficult. This explanation is only meant to underscore the importance of vigilance as people consume information about controversial topics to distinguish between information intended to confuse from information intended to inform good judgments. This essay summarizes and analyzes information from Nathaniel Riley’s article “The Cost of Solar Panels: Is It Worth It?” which explicates the cons of solar panels (as well as the pros of solar panels beyond this essay’s scope).
The author comes up with a total of four cons of solar panels. First, “installation and maintenance costs are still high” (Riley). According to Riley, solar panels’ high installation and maintenance costs are a significant drawback to their widespread adoption. Solar panels are expensive to purchase and install and require regular cleaning and maintenance to function properly. In the U.S., the average cost of installing a residential solar module ranges between “$3,500 and $16,000” (Riley). More importantly, most of the cost is usually upfront, and it may take, on average, ten to twenty years for the system to pay for itself in cost savings from electric bills. This point is highly plausible considering that solar panels’ operating efficiency (capacity factor) is usually much lower than the theoretical capacity, at approximately 34 percent (Miller and Keith 5, Riley). This inefficiency means installing many solar panels to achieve reliable production capacity is necessary. Moreover, solar panels are susceptible to damage from weather conditions, leading to failure. All these factors raise the cost of installing and maintaining a solar power system.
Secondly, the article states that the fact that solar panels “only [work] when the sun is out” is a major disadvantage (Riley). While solar panels are a renewable energy source that does not produce emissions, they only work in areas with abundant sunlight. This means that solar panels cannot produce power during inclement weather or at night. According to Riley, people can use batteries to supply energy at night and during poor weather. However, “batteries have been [histori...