> The cost of mounting solar panels nowadays is often higher than the cost of the panels.
This fact always surprises me. What goes into a mount that makes it so expensive? Its essentially just a piece of metal, right?
The article goes into the parts for their custom fence project, but for the more typical case, why can't the metal mounts just be mass produced cheaply?
I’m finishing up a DIY ground install and just the conductor from the array to the service panel cost the same as about 3 panels. It’s about a 150 meter run.
Some very rough numbers from memory:
- 20 panel + 10 microinverter bundle: $5600
- cost to ship the bundle: $700
- conductor: $450
- steel/pvc conduit for conductor sheath: $350
- strut for racking: $500
- 3” steel conduit for ground mount: $5000
- concrete and tube forms for vertical post footers: $400
- augur/trencher rental: $500
- brackets/fasteners: $600
- tools: $500
- electrician work to upgrade service panel: $2500
- electrician work for hookup and disconnect install: still TBD but I’m guessing more thousands
- time spent x my current hourly salary as a programmer: I don’t want to think about it haha
Probably a bunch of stupid little stuff I’m forgetting. Just gas to go on supply runs is probably over $100, although I always tried to batch runs with other normal errands.
The most expensive parts of projects can be surprising, at least to me. I also recently invested in my own fuel transfer pump to transport home heating fuel instead of paying for delivery. 55 gallon drums: $20 each. Pump: $200. But the most expensive part was actually the 15 meters of arctic grade fuel hose at over $400.
For sure. I've recently done my back yard with weathering steel raised beds and larger wooden privacy blocking partitions. I'm doing all the cutting and welding myself, so needed a heavy duty 220v high amp extension cord. Built my own, but the insulated copper cable for that was a pretty penny. Cutting wheels, grinding disks, and welding supplies add up in cost quick. That and all the different fasteners you need. And pity the thought of using any decorative brass or copper....
> I'm doing all the cutting and welding myself, so needed a heavy duty 220v high amp extension cord. Built my own, but the insulated copper cable for that was a pretty penny.
300V 6/3 SO cord is about 6 bucks a foot, that adds up quick! Just be glad you didn’t have to buy any pin and sleeve connectors ;)
You can save the $700 freight shipping if you live near a distributor. https://www.sunhub.com/ and https://a1solarstore.com/ both have local pickup locations and extremely good deals on panels. Rent a pickup truck (or a trailer), show up and they'll drop a palletized bundle in your bed. It's also nice because you aren't hoping the freight shipping company handled them perfectly or dealing with damage claims. I picked my panels up in New Jersey from two different places, was easy.
Depending on your local area, if you're the homeowner, you can often do most of the electrical yourself (pull permits if needed). Use ChatGPT to look up code requirements and instructions, then look up YouTube videos where professionals show you how to do it all. I think it's much less complicated than figuring out all the solar-specific stuff (tilt angles, voltages, wiring, disconnects, etc).
Sadly couldn’t. I was able to get free shipping from a distributor in San Antonio to Tacoma, then transshipped it to Alaska with Carlile. And same story there though, forklift right into the truck bed!
Plenty of RVs have rooftop solar panels that'll routinely travel at 65 mph into a 35 mph headwind with no trouble. They're mounted with just plenty of little L-brackets screwed into essentially a plywood roof. Usually an RV roof has lightweight metal struts underneath for load support, but that's not what the solar panels mount to, that's mostly to carry the weight of a person standing on the roof. Never heard anyone have wind shear issues, the only trouble the L-brackets cause is water intrusion when the caulk ages and fails.
Solar panel weighs like 50 lbs. Think of it as a sheet of plywood. Not only do have to support the weight but have to worry about the wind load.
You can use wood, but then you have buy good amount of treated lumber and put it together. Galvanized steel also lasts longer than wood.
My impression is that galvanized steel fences are cheaper than wood ones. Even using steel posts and wood panels. People make wooden fences cause prefer the look.
Yep, snow load is a concern, but they’re mounted at a high angle due to our latitude. That does however increase wind load, and we’re located in somewhat of a gulley that funnels wind. I saw a friend’s professionally installed ground mount buckle under a failed piece of strut so figured I’d splurge for stronger stuff where possible, especially since I’m DIYing it and looking forward to the tax credit, reducing costs to match.
Markup on the mounting systems, installers not willing to take the liability of installing expensive and heavy panels with random garbage hardware that is piercing a roof, roof work being pretty miserable and harder and more dangerous than 99% of jobs, and you are dealing with electrical systems and competing within the licensed electrician labor market.
A lot of construction work in general is priced around labor being atleast 50% of the total cost.
This discussion is naturally focused on Western countries but in countries with GDP below $5k, the total cost of 9kwp rooftop solar with battery is less than $10k. Western countries could have this too but it's not allowed due to immigration restrictions and industry regulations preventing tradespeople from flying in and doing it for cheap on your house.
If we are talking about electrical installations flying in is a bad idea because the code / regulations are different in different countries but what would help is making it faster to get a license. In both the UK and the US one needs may hours of apprenticeship (around 10000h AFAIK) so it takes years to get a license. If apprenticeship hours will be reduced and amended with a stricter exam labor supply will increase IMHO.
Someone flying in and mounting something to my roof is just asking for trouble. I would think the gap in expectations (actual and implicit) is just too big. Not mentioning what your insurance will say.
This zero tolerance attitude for problems is the reason it's so expensive (aside from industry lobbying & protectionism). It's better to be pragmatic and allow some level of risk in the name of more sensibly balancing competing objectives (risk vs affordability).
That's not the case when it comes to professional bodies. Tradespeople are similar to surgeons. They use licensing as a tool to restrict labor so their wages remain artificially high and they can parasitically collect economic rents. Getting overseas labor banned is part of this.
I'm not in favor of throwing away all regulations and all licensing, mind you. But some pragmatic rebalancing needs to happen. If I go to India I do not automatically die inside a house with a $9500 solar installation. That'd be much more likely to happen on an American road with its 40000/yr fatalities that everyone casually accepts as a pragmatic trade-off worth having ;)
> They use licensing as a weapon to restrict labor supply
In parts they do, but that doesn't mean that licensing doesn't have a point. They should not be able to limit the licenses but testing and training should absolutely happen. Especially for critical things like electricity.
> If I go to India I do not automatically die inside a house with a $9500 solar installation.
You don't but your chances are higher than a country with enforced minimum standards.
> That'd be much more likely to happen on an American road with its 40000/yr fatalities that everyone casually accepts as a pragmatic trade-off worth having ;)
India’s traffic fatality rate is 12.6 per 100k, which is about the same as the US’ at 14.2. India has a very low car ownership rate, and US a very high one, so I dunno that I’d be so quick to judge in your shoes.
Since we're making ethnocentric assumptions and making comparisons between the USA and India, perhaps our building standards encourage safe public infrastructure?
Perhaps if India was more like the USA, safe road travel would improve - and consequently - their 172k traffic fatalities would fall to a more acceptable level (by the way there are doubts this figure is correct - people speculate it's much higher)?
And before you complain about the population difference, I checked the per capita rates of traffic fatalities. India outpaces the USA by quite a bit.
By the way, this is all an apples and oranges comparison. Building standards has nothing to do with road fatalities.
The problem is not the customer safety, it's the worker's. Look into how things used to be done in the "good old days" and see if you'd be ok going to that kind of job. [1]
Fortunately, most local laws in the US require a permitting process where the installer has to demonstrate licensure and/or bonding, so that someone with a defective sense of risk doesn't get people killed. Happy to pay extra to avoid your scenario.
It's the people who don't have money that are at a much higher risk of injury or death due to improper installation and maintenance. It's a definite trade off we make in the west after large numbers of people suffered from lax safety standards. Simply put, if there is no compulsion to be safe, far too many people wont
/me remembers being on a customer site 5 years ago and watching the owner get material off a high shelf by standing on a pallet held up by a fully-extended forklift.
The other engineer and I just looked at each other and quietly minded our own business :-)
There is a very significant risk of one or more workers falling off the roof and getting killed or injured so badly they can never work again. Do you plan to take that risk and if it happens pay death benefits to the fallen worker's family or cover the medical and disability expenses? Or, to you expect to just say "tough luck" to the worker? Or, will you pay an insurer to cover it?
There is a very significant risk the roof will pierced in a way that it no longer works to exclude water, magnified by using materials & tools not up to standards. Will you take on the risk when the roof fails and leaks, and remove the installation, repair the roof, they re-do the installation? Do you expect the overseas contractors to come back and fix it (and how will you enforce that)? Or, will you require them to follow some established standard to reduce the risk, and/or try to get insurance/warranty to cover the risk?
It is easy and trivial to complain about "excess" regulations, ignoring the fact that many of them were bought with blood and funerals. And yes, some are a pain in the arse, and seem unnecessary for your particular situation. But unless you have actually considered the WHOLE problem, and can post a better solution, it just comes of as immature whinging. So, how do you expect to handle the risks?
Pragmatism would be not worrying about solar rooftops and small-scale solar as an outcome at all. It's cheaper to build solar at large scale, for basically the same reasons associated with scaling up anything else. The primary reason that there has been a boom of small-scale DIY solar is that the energy utilities are so corrupt that random individuals are keeping up with them.
This is a huge part of why solar costs so much more in the USA than in many developing countries. Every jurisdiction in the USA has its own rules and most jurisdictions have very strict safety and permitting (to make sure of safety) rules.
The safety rules do make things much safer but also noticeably increase cost. It’s a tradeoff we as a society have decided is worth it. Maybe at some point we will change that decision and then costs will quickly come down, capitalism is very good at meeting the minimum requirements in order to make sales.
Typical roof mounted installs in the USA are in the $3-4/Watt range, inclusive of parts, labor, and permitting for professional installation. Tax credits and other incentives can reduce this.
Code compliant ground mount installs via DIY are in the $2.75-$4/Watt range, inclusive of all parts and permitting and assuming labor is free but that a licensed electrician is needed for final grid tie. Tax incentives can reduce this. Not needing permits or a licensed electrician also can reduce it. Alternatives such as using wood racking instead of metal is also cheaper but this may violate electric code.
>As of March 2025, the cost of residential solar energy in Australia averaged just AUD $0.90 (USD $0.59) per watt—less than a quarter of the U.S. average.
It's generally attributed to consistent sensible regulation which has created a competitive market and reduced any time wasting paperwork.
In my research this past summer considering solar in the USA, it was difficult for me to find just new with-warranty solar panels in low quantities (I only want 5kW to 10kW of panels) for a DIY install for less than $0.30/W including delivery and sales tax. To hit $0.59/W total cost is mind boggling to me.
In The Netherlands it's €0.90-1.30/kWp for installation of rooftop solar, everything included. Here in Belgium it's maybe 10-20% more I think, no permits required. Neither country have particularly low labour costs.
I know contractors travel for work, but flying in? Wouldn't the cost for shipping all the contractor boxes, renting living quarters, local food, and aircraft fare rapidly eat into the savings? Not to mention the downward pressure on wages this would have...
> it's not allowed due to immigration restrictions and industry regulations preventing tradespeople
US doesn't need immigrants. There is a lot cheaper labor available[1], $7.23 to $14.45 per month. Many companies use this nearly free labor infrastructure[2]. There is no reason solar installers can't train and use them.
Where are you sourcing materials? I was planning my own 11 kWh system with selfsolar.com at $1.50/watt but now think I’m going to buy a pallet of panels from a1solarstore.com at a fifth of the price. Still need to figure out the supports and draft the permit set.
I’m in Denver area and bought panels, rails, and inverter from CED Greentech. They were okay. Apparently they’re having trouble sourcing materials, and have massive demand due to the expiring tax credits. So if you’re thinking of going this route, buy the materials and have them delivered, even before waiting for utility/county permission.
I talked to a local engineer for drafting plans. I didn’t know what I was doing so had to go through 4-5 revisions, which the engineer got frustrated by I think.
> What goes into a mount that makes it so expensive?
Ground mounts are far more expensive, not only because of how strong they need to be to support the panels under strong winds and snow without deflection, but the anchoring can be complicated depending on the site.
Some people can just hammer spikes into the ground, fill with epoxy, and their array is anchored. For my yard, I have to dig 4-feet down below frost line, through incredibly rocky clay soil, and bury (and concrete) 4x4 posts. On top of those posts goes the (expensive) metal rails to mount the panels. For just 10 solar panels it's gonna cost me ~$1000 in materials and many hours of digging.
The metal U-channel rails I'm looking at using will cost around $40/pp (10-ft), and I need at least 10 of them. In theory a cheaper option could be wooden boards like 2x8/2x10, but they're significantly heavier, bulkier, and would still be difficult to mount to.
This construction lets me build the array however I want, including adjusting angle (I'll have 4 pre-set angles for each season). This design is still cheaper than the cheapest pre-fab ground mounts, which are metal legs which go for ~$110/pp. You need ~2 legs per panel, though in some cases you can share one leg for two panels. For 10 panels you still need at least 11 legs, so at least $1100, before cost to anchor them. And that's a fixed angle. The adjustable angle ones are more like $185/pp.
No, power augers (even hydraulic ones) don't work well in incredibly rocky clay soil. My landlord tried to use one a couple years ago, got about a foot deep, and gave up and grabbed a shovel and digging bar.
I have the privilege of being licensed and insured for such and have a working relationship with the county fire marshall who issues the permits, so I used a rock bar to open a little hole to the right depth and then sprung the hole with a small binary explosive charge. Covered with matting hung from a borrowed tractor's bucket, so no danger of launched projectiles.
Saved a whole lot of backbreaking digging, do recommend.
In my experience, if you’re willing to sacrifice the bit, they can save time in the earth composition you mention vs manual excavation if the driver has enough power (especially if mounted to a skid steer, just drive the bit towards success depth). Thanks for the reply, always curious on improving the speed and efficiency of ground mount installs.
That costs something, yes, but the actual hardware itself is absurdly expensive for what it amounts to - a few bolts, a few simple aluminium profiles.
I have several solar arrays at home - roof mounted, ground mounted.
The first array I ended up shelling out something like €2k for a mounting kit for a dozen panels.
The second array I went to a local builders merchant and bought a pile of aluminium profiles, and got a sack of cheap panel mounting bolts and clamps from China. 30 panels, about €200 in mounting hardware, and I went for the absolute bare minimum truss that would support them and be rigid through extreme weather. Commercially, it was looking like €3,500 just for the ground mounting kit. My labour cost was my sorry ass hauling gear up a cliff like a pack-goat and drilling bedrock to anchor them. Actually, the rock anchors were one of the expensive parts of that array - I think next time I’m just doing deeper holes, threaded bar and grout.
So yeah. The noun is bloody expensive, never mind the verb.
I appreciate that, but my impression is that even just the materials are more expensive before you take into account labour costs, which is the part that boggles my mind.
What happened in the last decade was that solar panels ("Module" in this graph)
got very very cheap. They used to cost $3 per watt in 2010, but now only
cost $0.3 per watt.
This extreme price drop happened thanks to technical innovations (such as
commoditization of PERC cells), and the large-scale production in PRC.
Metal components ("Hardware - BOS" in this graph) did get cheaper in the same time frame ($0.6 per watt to $0.5 per watt),
but their cost cannot be reduced as much exactly because they are just a piece of metal i.e. there is no low-hanging fruit in Metallurgy.
> This fact always surprises me. What goes into a mount that makes it so expensive? It’s essentially just a piece of metal, right?
The labor alone to mount the PV panel costs more than the PV panel. A union electrician costs a contractor $100/hr in a medium sized metro area with fringes and wages.
The mount and installing the mount cost more than the PV panel as well.
I’m unsure why everyone is posting about rooftop solar and rooftop mounts, the vast majority of PV panels are installed in solar fields, not on roofs.
I actually run and sell commercial electrical work, for what it’s worth.
I wonder if you couldn't do something incredibly simple like get some pressure treated 4x4 posts and use a router to make shallow slots for the panels to sit in. Plant them the right width and run a 2x4 along the bottom to let the panel rest on it.
What is it about solar panels that makes everyone want to use these really expensive mounting solutions? Is it just because they're trying to engineer a full 30 year lifespan right from the start?
You will still need the conduit for the wire of course, at least up to the inverter. That will add up pretty quickly if your mounts are spread out.
I suspect that it's difficult to keep the post sufficiently still that the panels don't fall off those slots? Particularly if there's ground frost in the winters in your area.
Of course it's possible to make it work, but if you need a concrete foundation in the ground to keep the posts immobile you're destroying the economics of it.
Then again, why don't those 'really expensive mounting solutions' suffer from the same issue?
Because of the variety of roof designs and associated mounting systems, it is generally known how to mount the panels you are paying for. Installing panels on a high-pitched roof is also not an easy feat.
For ground mounting, site preparation is required. Probably one wouldn't want to see their panel system get some slope year after year.
I laid a set of panels on my low slope shed roof and just never secured them. They’re offset about 1/2” which enough that water flows under them and off the shed.
I’m in a very windy location but they are heavy enough to not budge.
With mounting costing more than replacement, I like those odds. They’ve been up several years and have survived many 70+ MPH storms. At this point I’m actually curious what kind of conditions would cause them to move/lift.
It’s obviously not appropriate for all cases. But the original article, the guy could have gotten by with some zip ties. I’m of opinion that a lot of mounting is over engineered.
You can buy cheap mounting equipment on AliExpress. But then you must convince your local building department that your panels won't land on your neighbors in the next storm. That conversation is easier when you're using familiar name-brand mounting equipment that has published and proven all its specs.
Similarly, if you want to do a permitted installation, you generally need to use UL-certified inverters and batteries -- fewer shocks and fires. That's a different pricing tier from the "trust me bro" equipment you can find online.
Meanwhile, a panel's main failure mode is not producing enough power. They're relatively easy to replace when they fail to do that. Price incentives are better aligned for that system component.
This fact always surprises me. What goes into a mount that makes it so expensive? Its essentially just a piece of metal, right?
The article goes into the parts for their custom fence project, but for the more typical case, why can't the metal mounts just be mass produced cheaply?