I'm looking at doing solar next year, and while it's been likely for a while that I'll do the work myself (because I just lean that way and like doing weird things), I've gotten some quotes from local installers anyway. If they were willing to do something close to what I wanted, great, but... wow, the prices.
I just got a $38k quote for 8.6kW of roof mount.
I can buy the panels, inverters, and interface unit (at MY cost - not their bulk discount costs) for about $12k. A couple grand of roof rails, some cable, conduit... maybe $15k-$17k installed. I'm pretty confused as to why they're quoting $38k, other than "Because they can, and because their fancy finance packages make it seem cheap."
It's quite in line for other quotes out here. $3-$4/W installed is the normal range out here, which seems just obscene to me for the materials cost, and I know that they're paying far less than I am, since they buy panels and inverters by the containerload.
This puts me firmly back into the "Doing it myself" category, which will let me do things like a virtual tracking (east/west facing panels) system, DC coupled, with battery backup. Since I'm reliant on electricity to run my well pump (and eventually irrigation/firefighting pumps), building a battery backed system seems interesting, and the AC coupled stuff just isn't there yet, in either price or usability (IMO). I'll still be grid tied, but for the cost of 8kW of grid tied, I can put in 14kW of panels (so better cloudy day production in the winter), 20-40kWh of battery in my crawlspace, and STILL come out ahead. Or, so far, it seems that way.
Am I missing something massive here, or are solar installers just charging what the market will bear and making silly profits on the whole deal?