When does a Solar Lease make sense? For residential consumers that want to go solar without making any up-front investment -- a no money down approach -- a solar lease might make some sense. However you can also achieve this with a well-structured loan and get the benefits of ownership. There are pre-paid leases where you pay an up-front lump sum and then have no monthly lease payments thereafter, for the term of the lease. This is somewhat like buying a system in that it requires an up-front expenditure of cash, but actually what you are buying is pre-paid electricity. It is still a lease and therefore you do not own the system or realize any of the advantages of ownership, but still have most of the disadvantages of a lease. Or, perhaps you do not have the time or patience and just want someone else to take care of it all for you. That may be a rather unwise and hasty position to be in when confronting such a significant and important investment. Solar energy systems typically have 25-30 year operating lives with little or no maintenance required. What little effort it may take you to gain ownership pales in comparison to the long, relatively effortless life of this investment. Ownership has its rewards. solar-estimate.org/?page=solar-lease Solar Leasing vs Solar Loan vs Solar Cash Conclusions So, in my somewhat random selection of addresses, and using the best estimates for electric bills I could come up with*, it turns out that solar leasing and the $0-down solar loan option actually tied (5 to 5) for the # of times that they were the better option! Interesting, and I have to say that I wouldn’t have guessed it. Also, there was huge variation in some cases, while they were very similar in other cases. In all the cases, you can clearly see that a cash purchase gives you the best return — that’s a given. The key questions with that option would be: 1) do you have the money for a cash purchase, and 2) where else would you potentially invest or spend that money if you didn’t use it to buy a solar system and leased or got a loan instead. Of course, financial savings aren’t the only matter to take into consideration. Solar leasing/PPA contracts also often take care of maintenance, monitoring, and almost all the paperwork of going solar (including tax stuff). Also, the EnergySage tool assumes you can take advantage of incentives in your state. However, if your financial situation doesn’t allow that for some reason, a solar leasing/PPA company still could and could pass on those financial benefits (minus profit and company costs). In the end, though, I think the EnergySage tool shows one thing very clearly: there can be huge financial variation using different financing options. The best thing to do is to look at all of your options, get actual quotes from different installers, and then go solar in the way that best works for you. There’s no simple solution that’s best for everyone. cleantechnica/2014/02/09/solar-leasing-vs-0-solar-loan-scenarios-10-states/ Solar panels themselves are now a global product. There’s tremendous variation in the cost of solar panels based on the type and efficiency of the solar panels. However, the type of panels used for residential solar installations is quite standard and the costs are basically set globally. That cost has fallen tremendously within the past few years — they’re now about half the price they were in 2008, and about 100 times lower than they were back in 1977. The latest US Solar Market Insight report (from Q3) put the price at $0.70/watt. A report from REC Solar shows that the price in Q2 as a bit higher — about $0.73/watt. Still, the price is very low compared to 2008 or 2009, and insanely low compared to 2000. cleantechnica/2014/02/04/current-cost-solar-panels/ Time it Takes for 5kW of Solar Power to Pay for Itself 7 Years Grade: B How much do all these solar incentives, rebates, and tax credits add up to in Arizona? A bunch. Bags ‘o money, honey. For real. Let’s take a look at an average 5kW solar installation example in the beautiful solar friendly state of Arizona: This solar quote is for a homeowner in the Trico utility area and now paying a $100 average electric bill. We’re going to assume an average installed cost before rebates and incentives of $3.50/watt, due to the recent drop in solar panel prices. Could be more or less depending on competition in your area. So how does that pencil out? Let me get my pencil. Heres how the calculations work: solarpowerrocks/arizona-solar/ And THOSE are just a few. Rather than argue... SAVE MONEY! More about Free Energy @ https://facebook/groups/teslarelease/
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 18:27:48 +0000
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