SanJoseGreenHome.com

Do you ever find yourself so deeply entrenched in your beliefs that you miss a bigger picture?  It’s safe to say we all do.  Recently, I had a chance to speak with a lovely lady who had purchased a fantastically green home.  The house had all the latest in green building like engineered lumber, sustainable materials, non-toxic finishes and many other bells and whistles.  You can imagine that my eyes sparkled like a five year old’s at a sight of an ice-cream truck.  Meeting her filled me with much excitement.  

My first questions obviously were:  “So how do you like it?  Does it feel good to have a low carbon footprint?  Don’t you just love your solar water heater?”  I was expecting to hear something profound like: ”Wow, we love the fact how much less wood was used to construct this house, how much stronger it is because of engineered lumber, how low the heating bills were,” you know…, the standard stuff that we greenies get jazzed up about.  But you know what her answer was? “It’s nice; we love the quality of the floors and are very comfortable here.”  

My jaw dropped.  “What?” uninvited but silent thoughts started creeping in, “She’s got to be kidding… this home should be like a Lincoln monument for green building and all she cares about is bamboo floors… For the sake of the planet, what’s wrong with her!?”  

Needless to say, this was puzzling as hell but on the way back home it dawned on me (more…)

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Alright folks, it’s here!  A solution that gives access to solar power even to the most cash strapped green minded suburbanites and… it’s brought to you by the very people who delivered to us the sub-rime mortgage debacle.  It’s called a “residential solar lease” which is a “no money down” program that can get you electricity cheaper than what you cash out to PG&E on monthly basis.  Sounds familiar? 

The idea is simple; instead of buying your panels by dishing out thousands of dollars upfront you lease them for “one low monthly fee.”  You win, the solar company wins, environment is happy.   So what’s not to love?  How about a 15 year contract, a 3.9% increased payment every year and our Wall Street friends who have their fingers all over this sweet deal? 

On the surface, this sounds like a viable option for many home owners.  It solves an expensive problem of purchasing the panels outright for around 27,000 dollars (average 1,700 sq. foot home).  It works a bit like a car lease where home owners sign a deal that locks them in for 15 years with the option of extending their lease or buying the panels at the end of the contract.  With a solar lease, your monthly payments can be around $110 which, according to the service providers, will normally be around 15% less than your PG&E bill.  Are you sold yet?

After all, the way these companies and even our media like to paint it – it’s a no brainer deal.  SolarCity, which is based right here in our backyard of Silicon Valley, is one of the very well financed operations that is the first to start aggressively market this contract for home owners all over Bay Area and western states.  SunRun is another similar co. based in San Francisco.

Who really finances these deals?  (more…)

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