schooling fine young greenies

German firm Schucco has developed a solar project at the Deutsche International Schule in Johannesburg. PV modules generating 3.48 kW, together with a solar water heating system, are expected to save the school 22,300 kWh of electricity a year, cutting emissions by 18,000 kg a year. That's great, but what I find hard to believe is the claim that the payback period for a similar system on an industrial scale would be less than a year. If that were true, we'd all be rushing out to install these systems. Do the Germans know something we don't?

Comments

[Will]

I believe the energy payback time is around that order of magnitude - this could be what they were talking about.

I heard recently about an Australian installing PV cells, and the payback time in terms of money was more like 150 years...