Category Archives: Residential Solar 101
Does EV+PV Save More Money?
Thanks to the ever-increasing cost of fuel bills, solar energy is becoming more and more popular as a viable source of power for financially savvy consumers. However, solar energy isn’t exactly a new business; solar cells were invented in the early 19th century when scientist, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, observed that the presence of sunlight was capable of [...]
Can Solar Leasing Get Cheaper?
Before solar leasing came along, installing PV on a residential rooftop was expensive. The approach to achieving the allusive breaking point of “grid parity”, or when solar PV is the same cost or cheaper than fossil fuel generation, was to chip away at the expenses with government incentives. Rebates, small grants, and more recently renewable [...]
The Relationship Between SREC Prices and Solar Leasing
Several forums, including this one, covering residential solar developments have commented on the volatility of SREC markets in some states. But few have yet to note the potentially tremendous impact on solar leasing, and residential solar adoption in general, in those SREC states experiencing severe fluctuations in pricing. You may have read how the New [...]
In Focus: Micro Inverters
What factors do you consider when you’re comparing quotes to install a system? Probably a number of things- electricity savings, system size, total cost, to name a few. But what about inverters? Or more specifically, micro inverters? Truth is, some of the most significant technological innovations in residential solar have been in the field of [...]
Declining Panel Prices and Solar Leasing
The rapid decline in panel prices has been widely reported among bloggers and research institutions in the PV industry, as has the ripple effect this trend has had on driving demand for residential solar. In addition, it seems like every day there are new articles coming out about the growth of the major leasing companies. [...]
Comparing SREC Aggregators
Anyone interested in installing panels, or who already has, has probably heard of solar renewable energy credits, or “SRECs”. An SREC is basically a rebate for PV system owners. But instead of one big payment based on capacity (e.g., $1.00/watt), the rebate is based on solar electricity generation, and thus paid out over time. PV [...]
Clean Power Finance: Making Moves in Solar Leasing
Only weeks after a revealing study from NREL documenting the expansion of solar leasing into new income demographics in southern California, Clean Power Finance is reaching outside the west-coast bubble of clean energy innovation to offer financing services for residential solar customers in Colorado, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Though several private equity firms and capital [...]
Social Networking: Helping the Solar Push
On Monday, I posted an article about residents pushing their local officials to tighten restrictions on solar PV installations in neighborhoods. This attitude is sometimes referred to as NIMBY, or “Not-In-My-Backyard”, and seems to pervade neighborhoods when a socially responsible action is taken, or sometimes required, at the expense of an individual’s pleasantries (e.g., a [...]
Why Distributed Solar is a Big Deal
A buzzword often used in promotions for small-scale solar PV development is the term “distributed generation”. It’s a broadly defined term, partially because it’s still more of an idea than a tested alternative to centralized power grids common in most communities. Centralized electricity generation typically serves a large and diverse set of consumers from a [...]
PACE Still Alive
Communities and homeowners have more reason to be optimistic about solar financing. In the summer of 2010, the Federal Housing Financial Authority (FHFA), which is the regulatory arm of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unilaterally wiped out PACE financing programs that were just gaining fruition in communities (sometimes state-wide) across the country. With the [...]
Solar Leases Are Here to Stay
A very informative and thorough study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) called The Transformation of Southern California’s Residential Photovoltaics Market through Third-Party Ownership” has rightfully received wide readership for its insight into the trends of residential PV markets moving towards third-party ownership models – particularly, as the study’s evidence demonstrates, in southern California. [...]
Comparing Solar Leases
While 2011 may mark the first year solar leasing became a widely accepted option to finance and install residential solar systems, 2012 is shaping to be a year of growth – and differentiation – in the niche industry of providing solar leases. Though the basic structure of a solar lease is similar across the board, [...]