@ucme There is something in between. It is possible to have the panel outside, mounted on a roof with the outlets on the inside. The option showed is one of the most expensive ways to do it. They could easily run an underground connection from the nearest building at a small fraction of the cost.
While functional, this is mainly for show. When solar cells get to be 5x better and sell for 1/5 the current price we might see more widespread applications.
Now, if this were in the desert, far away from civilization, I’d be all in favor of it.
@wundayatta Does this mean they are being mounted to the ground too? Yikes.
And who will maintain them when (not if) a cell breaks or the inverter blows? I’ll bet the annual service contract is more expensive than the total electrical energy the unit provides in a year..
This is purely an engineering estimate since I do not know your location nor the active element but I will bet I am reasonably close. One installation will make about 1 kWH per day assuming average sun loading. At $0.12 per kWh That comes to $40 worth of electricity total output for a year. Let’s say I am off by a factor of 2. Make it 2.5 for easy math, so the unit, at best, will produce $100 worth of electricity if all outlets are used all the time and there is full sun every day. Good luck with that. How much is the service contract? More than $100 I’d guess.