Still here
OK I’m still here – just not enough time to do any useful posting.
NJ rebates for oil and propane customers stopped effective May 31, so we had a rush of last minute audits – let’s call them assessments – to get oil customers through the program. Oil to gas conversion clients are not affected.
In the meantime lots of interesting things have happened, including the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, followed by Germany’s declaration that they would close all their nuclear power generation. All covered in much detail elsewhere, but with some significant effects. If Germany really can replace 25% of its electricity capacity with renewables, at acceptable cost (!), this should be a model for the whole world.
Posted: June 5th, 2011 under Uncategorized.
One response to “Still here”
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Hey, there,I’d just like to point out that the program that you’re dscirebing is not a lease, but a Power Purchase Agreement or PPA. And while they say it’s as little as $1000 down, I believe that that down payment rises with the size of your system, so your down payment may actually be larger.With a PPA, depending on your agreement and down payment, the electric rate that you’re paying for your solar panels may rise incrementally over the term of the PPA. That’s very different from the leasing model. In the classic lease, a model developed mostly by California based Solar City, there is no down payment and you do not pay for any power that your panels generate. Instead, as noted, you’re paying the for the lease payment plus any extra power you have to buy from your electric company. The catch is that your leasing payment also rises 3.9%. That’s typically less than the 5% increases by electric company. So, bottom line: PPA, you pay for power generated by solar panels with some money down and yearly increases on your PPA electric rate. Lease, you have no money down (typically) and pay a flat leasing fee that rises every year by a certain percent, plus left over Utility bill.In both cases, you are locked into the agreement for 15-20 years and have usually have an option to buy. You also must have a very good credit rating.While both these options are good for low cost financing, in the long term, you’re better off financially using home equity or an energy efficiency mortgage to buy your panels. Today’s various incentives make this very attractive. Either way, you have nothing to lose by getting a quote from these various companies and comparing the financial pros and cons.