Solar Panel Install

[Sarnia Saver]

Hello all, I am in the middle of deciding if I want to install solar panels on the roof of my primary residence.  I plan on converting the place to a rental home in the next 18 months and renting out to my mother, (the merits of that decision to be discussed at a later date).  Currently the gov of Ontario offers a 20 year contract to purchase all the electricity your panels produce and a rate well above the current price it sells it to consumers.  So the income shown on the following estimate is guaranteed by my local government.  Also, the social 'good' aspect of doing my small part to wean us off our fossil fuel reliance appeals to me.

Does this look like it makes financial sense?  I have the cash, but should I consider a loan, since the interest can be wrote off against the income it produces? (I'm in a 43% marginal tax bracket).

*Edited to remove attachment with personal details.  I fail at computers.

[Cadman]

From a technical point of view, this doesn't look too bad. The big advantage of a Solaredge optimizer is it allows you to have panels facing multiple directions, some in shade, some not, without dragging down your string voltage.

If you're going to have two groups of equal numbered panels, both with good direct sun but not necessarily at the same time, you could forego the optimizers and look at a dual-MPPT inverter. This would save money and allow you to size the inverter closer to the panel ratings as you want the power generated to just barely clip the inverter's input. So for this system, a 5.5kW unit should be more efficient than the 10kw they're suggesting.

As a gut check, I'd plug those forecasted kWh amounts into the calculator here: http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php and see what the results are.