Reddit mentions of Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems

Gladly. One book that really recommend is Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems by Gilbert M. Masters (Publication Date: August 11, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0471280607 | ISBN-13: 978-0471280606). Even though the book was published in 2004, it is still a great reference on how things are broken down when it comes to solar panels, and wind turbines. It incorporates bank loans, fuel escalations, and such into the equations and can help one determine the payback time.

In additon, IEEE published a paper called "Residential Solar Systems:
Technology, Net-metering, and Financial payback" in 2009 explaining the breakdown of the savings for residential at three different cities -- New York Island, Phoenix, and Charleston (Charleston being the only city without any incentives) and explains the breakdown costs for each case scenario. This paper was published three years ago and it does support your statement of around 15-20 years at that but the efficiency of solar panels has increased since then (high teens - low twenties area with the world record of 23.5% verified by NREL ) which now pushes the payback down to roughly 10 years and as low as 7 years but that's for relatively small PV systems that have a low power output.


Edit: I forgot to add this. You are right that gov't incentives play a very large role. Certain locations in the US (and around the globe) embraces this. Without it, I would retract my statement but until that happens (or if ever), I stick to what I said.

Edit (part 2): One more thing I forgot to add. The payback values are for almost ideal cases as you said. It can wildly vary if you include weather, temperature, varying solar radiation, tilt angle, type of solar panel, # of cells per panel, wattage rating, size of the module, installation costs, labor costs, cleaning costs (taking away dirt/snow), location, warranty, and information of the bank loan (principal and interest since more than likely people won't be paying out of pocket in one swoop).

I think this is a great idea, and as my contribution, I'd like to recommend this awesome textbook:http://www.amazon.com/Renewable-Efficient-Electric-Power-Systems/dp/0471280607/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348630688&sr=1-1&keywords=renewable+and+efficient+electric+power+systems.

I normally hate textbooks, but this one is amazing giving real life examples for all concepts discussed. It doesn't assume any prior knowledge and walks you through the basics of electricity before moving into utility scale power systems and how renewable energy sources connect to the utility. As someone in the solar field, if you complete the electricity and solar parts of the book, you're going to way ahead of most people starting out in solar. Seriously check it out!