Comments on: Secrets of Residential Solar Lease – Sweet Deal or Disastrous Rip-off?

By: Wayne

Wayne — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:56:28 +0000

I agree that the plan that has 3.5% raise in price is no good… there are other plans that are a little down and a fixed rate. I am deling with another company who offer a fix cost 0% down plan.

As far as the rebates… that seems like a service to have them deal with it and pass the savings on.

I see it as a good deal, maybe not the best opportunity for your money, but still a good deal, doing the right thing.

By: CarLen

CarLen — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:10:16 +0000

I am using Sungevity. Prepaid a 3.4 Kw system for $5000. Therefore there are no monthly payments. Extremely easy to do.
You can use my reference number for another $500 off but then it sounds like I am selling as I also get $500 for the referral and that is not my intent. My referral number is 147185 if you want to use it…

So far I am very happy with this decision as it has been painless. All I want is to see my electric meter spin backwards!

By: Cybordolphin

Cybordolphin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:01:03 +0000

Kelly…. the new thin film technology cannot be purchased by you nor I. And it does not come in a “panel”. You are confusing the differing technologies.

By: Ian S

Ian S — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:03:58 +0000

Massachusetts may be an unusual case but other states with SRECs have seen an extremely volatile market for them with huge value drops from when they started. Here in Arizona, there is no SREC market, and in any event, if you accept the utility incentive, you give up any right to them. As for prepaid lease vs purchase, I’ve run the numbers here in Phoenix, and the prepaid lease is far cheaper than a purchase even after all the incentives are considered. For example, my prepaid lease is under a buck a watt and I don’t have the hassle of dealing with getting all the incentives, tax credits, etc. The reason for the prepaid lease advantage is quite simple: the lessor benefits from MACRS depreciation for which an individual purchasing the system is ineligible.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:58:38 +0000

Don’t forget the impact of SRECs. In Massachusetts, a 6 MwH/year system would currently generate over $3000 of income in addition to electricity savings. While the future of SRECs is certainly not guaranteed, it certainly helps in the short term and should make a system this size break-even in 5 years or less when you factor in all the other incentives and credits you get when you buy vs lease. If you don’t have the cash lying around (who does?) then a home equity loan will still result in monthly payments that are less. If you are considering prepaying a lease–why wouldn’t you buy instead of lease?

I did more research from my earlier comment and while I do not share the author’s perception that solar leases are somehow evil or bad because they are connected to Wall Street, it seems to me once you have decided to go solar, you might as well buy the system. In my case, a shading tree may derail the whole thing–and even if it didn’t I am looking at only a 3-5kW system. When you can put a 5-7kW system on your roof…I’d want to OWN that asset…and within 5 years or so, it’s all profit.

By: Ian S

Ian S — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:30:19 +0000

Find a Sunpower dealer and get a quote on a Sunpower lease. They are very competitive and their panels are top quality. In any event, I’d avoid leases with escalators even if you have to prepay some nominal amount upfront. If you don’t go fully prepaid, then consider that when you sell the house prospective buyers may not be enthusiastic about another monthly payment. 20 years is a long time for a commitment.

The installation of my system has finally begun. $6700 prepaid for a 6.9 kW system.

By: Guy from MAS

Guy from MAS — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:39:37 +0000

Great thread. I am in MA considering leasing option. I have 2 choices. One from SunRun (6000 KwH/year and 11.8c/KwH increasing at 2.9% per year) and the other form SolarCity (about 7.7K KwH/Year at 10.6c/KwH increasing 3.5%/year, 20 year term, $0 down). SolarCity is also offering prepay for $7.5K). Debating which way to go. Any comments/insights?

Thanks.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:39:23 +0000

This is a great and informative thread, although I am still confused as why why the author is so down on solar leasing. I did some quick calculations and my options are 1) spend about 15-20K upfront (after rebates, etc.) to buy panels or 2) spend nothing, breakeven on energy costs and get about 50% of my energy from leased panels. Sungevity has a performance guarantee which make sure the monthly lease cost is offset by savings. I’m not doing it primarily for the money…as long as it breaks even or better, why not do my part to reduce reliance on the grid?

If I look at the $15-20K system Sungevity would install and price it out to purchase, I am seeing about 13 years before breakeven. That makes no sense to me. Why should I prepay the cost of my electricity like that?

Now maybe if I finance that system, it will feel a lot like the lease does…but best case, I think that works out to about $100/month, not $45. If you can show me how to finance a 3.76 kW system with a 20 year loan for $45/month…well, that system has to cost under $7500, assuming 5% and 20 years.

This article has a lot of anti-wall street rhetoric in it…I don’t really care if I’m trading the rental of my electricty from NSTAR to Sungevity…and it seems like a home equity loan to put up a solar array in New England makes about as much sense as taking out a loan to build a man-cave in the basement. It’s not that I don’t have the money…but I don’t think it makes economic sense to invest in a solar array like that when there are other home improvement projects I could be doing.

Finally, when I consider the risks, it seems like the most current (2012) offers from these leasing companies address those risks. The performance guarantee should cover the issue of the array not saving as much money as we’d hoped. When I go to sell the property…we can prepay out the lease or transfer it–not a big concern in the context of your average $500K house sale. Much easier to negotiate that than deal with unpermitted basement work, the scrap of asbestos the home inspector finds, or plenty of other unexpected things that I am very familiar with in buying and selling houses. The solar array is “all good” from a seller’s perspective.

As far as I can tell, the principal risk to the lessee is that they are obligated to pay $45/month for 20 years and something could happen that would make you regret that commitment. The risk to the buyer of a solar system is all up front.

A solar lease seems to me an easier choice than even going with LED lighting. I went all-in with CFLs and I have yet to see a single one last more than 2 years–never the 7 years of use they promise on the labels. Prepaying energy savings is risky. When there is an option to try the technology out with no risk, I say go for it. Even if I don’t save much money, I will be reducing net demand by contributing energy to the grid.

By: MackSkin

MackSkin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:43:52 +0000

SolarCity has an agreement with my local power company that indicates the homeowner will receive the credit for excess power produced by the system. Another thing to consider is the cost of insuring panels you own or letting the lease company worry about that. Where i live we have hail storms…i dont want to replace panels every few years or pay insurance deductibles, etc.

By: Cybordolphin

Cybordolphin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:14:02 +0000

Kelly…. do not confuse THIN PANEL with THIN FILM. Completely different. The future held being able to PRINT the film using a printer that could actually apply the thin film to a roof tile, etc..

Ian…. finding the technology available to you and I…. once again…. NO you will not find a retailer in Phoenix of ANY other state. You did not understand or read my posts. The technology is only being made available to large utility companies… and the government. The utility companies want to keep you on their grid.

Manufacturing costs now of less than 20 cents per watt… compare that to any other panel solar available today… and you can see the huge lower cost potential.