Solar Panels (2 year update)

The solar panels have now been on my roof for two years.  They've produced over 8000 kWh of electricity thus far, and have prevented nearly 5 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.  Let's see how they're progressing.


This year's totals:
Energy produced:    4027 kWh
Energy consumed:   3157 kWh

Net:  -870 kWh

Last year's totals:

Energy produced:  3915 kWh 

Energy consumed:  3613 kWh 

Net:  -302 kWh 

So this is very good.  First, the panels produced 3% more energy in the second year than in the first.  I suspect this is primarily due to the mild winter with fewer cloudy days.  Still, this is nice because the panels are supposed to produce slightly less each year (less than 1%) due to degradation.  Second, we used 13% less energy throughout the year than we did the year before.  This is a big deal, especially because my wife was home a lot more this year.  The additional savings this year is entirely due to not running the air conditioner as much.  

In summary, in year one we used nine of the ten solar panels and the other panel was producing energy for my neighbors.  This year, we only used the energy from eight of the ten solar panels.  

And I think we can do more.  We're installing ceiling fans and a lot of additional insulation.  Hopefully that will bring down energy use associated with both cooling and heating.

Fun fact, the excess energy produced last year can drive a Nissan Leaf more than 2500 miles!