Sun2Calc

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  solar financial calculator

Inspiration

Solar is cheap! But many people don't understand it (yet). It does not help that many solar installers and solar specialists use the payback time as the most important property to describe the financial benefits of a solar PV system. And it gets even worse when many of those 'specialists' describe payback time as ROI or return on investment. This is plainly wrong!

But here is a better way: Use the comparison rate (as defined by the government to be used in home loan offers) and explain it to people. For finance geeks it is just the IRR. Or in very simple terms: The comparison rate is the interest rate of a bank account which creates the same income over 25 years as the solar PV system.

What it does

A website calculates the financial data of a solar PV system and shows a chart with the financial outcome over the years.

How I built it

The website has an embedded spreadsheet that calculates the financial data of a solar PV system with the user being required to enter only a few data to keep it simple.

Challenges I ran into

Embedding a worksheet in a website and keep it working including the charting capabilities. Reduce the number of required input parameters to keep it simple.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Complete financial modeling of a solar system

What I learned

What's next for Sun2Calc

make it even more user friendly and make it better known

Built With

• excel
• wordpress