Solar Panels With No Upfront Costs

[woodyz]

Middle-Class Families Are Set To Receive Solar Panels With No Upfront Costs In The U.S.

greenenergytribune.com/

aesproject.org/s-a-v-e/

I just applied for my Son, he may be to far down on the income ladder, but the program sounds good

anyone used it yet?

[cajunlady87]

First I hear of it but our state isn't included.

[geron]

I'm always cautions about FREE stuff. Is this a SCAM?

I wonder about the line "Get a free Quote."

From what I can gather you do not own the panels. There is a electric "fee" of 20-40%. Percentage of what I don't understand.

The Panels are installed free. What about the rest of the System, batteries, controllers, inverters, wiring, transfer switches, etc. ?

I did enter my name and number so I'm sure I'll be getting a call (read the fine print.)

[marc]

It's a likely a sales pitch for a PPA. (power purchase agreement) When I was with Sun Edison before their collapse, that's what we did - but only on large scale projects for utility companies and a few large industrial/commercial buildings.

Deals are negotiated per customer, so there are tremendous variations in the actual numbers and details. But typically:

- The system has no upfront cost to you, the homeowner because the system is owned by the investing company.
- They maintain/monitor it to determine how much power it has produced.
- You agree to pay for the power produced for "X" number of years at a cost of "Y" per KWH with escalations built in.
- Typically it is a 15-20 year period with power pricing starting at slightly less than your power company rates today.
- The future pricing is often scheduled out, escalating over time.

Our big commercial systems used a simple formula that we would charge 20% less than whatever the going rate was from their power company, and that the customer would buy that power for 20 years. We grew form zero to $1.2 Billion using that simple model.

BUT most PPA's offered to homeowners these days provide a schedule of fixed cost to buy that solar power, plus a price escalation schedule over time - that you sign for now. Big old "gotcha" right there. How do you know what your power company will be charging in 5, 10 or 20 years? They play on the fear of huge increases.

It is critical to remember that these systems are grid tied only, they have no batteries and no standalone capability. The solar system goes down when the grid goes down. You get zero power in full sunshine if the grid isn't there to interact with.

Batteries and/or or standalone inverters cannot be simply added later without all new inverters/controllers and wiring. The cost of changing after the fact is horrendous. This type of system is always selected because it is the only way to make the financial model work. Around here, power is so cheap that they don't make sense.

Companies who do these systems are in business to make money. They use your energy savings (tax credits, incentives and rebates) to make their money. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand that going in. Do the math of what it takes for them to get back a $10K, $15K or $30K investment - including profit and the cost of that invested capital.

 

[woodyz]

good info Marc

I sent the application in so I too could get the "hard facts info" and not just the hype from the ad, we will see.