Interesting business model...how many systems have they installed?

On their website they compare a sample solar lease to system purchase.  After incentives the purchase/out of pocket price for their 4kw system would be $25k to the homeowner, down from $35-$40k because of CA incentives (I assume).  For this analysis the CA incentives are a wash--the homeowner or solarcity get them either way.

SolarCity offers you a 15 yr lease at ~$2,000/yr ($1500 in year one; $2500 in year 15) after charging you $2k down, and an extra $8k to buyout the system at the end of the lease.

Solar City pockets a 30% federal tax credit worth ~$10k (an individual is capped to a $2k federal tax credit). This $10k plus the $2k down covers 50% of their outlay day 1.  Solarcity then charges ~$30k over 15 years of lease, plus the $8k residual ($38k altogether).  

I think that is pretty cool...$30k in lease payments over 15 years takes the asset from ~$13k value down to ~$8k.

I'm sure SolarCity gets some additional accelerated depreciation benefits...but I can sure see why SolarCity would want to sell this to the whole neighborhood.

Not one word (that I could see) in the promotional web pages about doing conservation, efficiency upgrades and SDHW first. Picking the hardest to reach, most expensive fruit first is a stupid, low EROEI, unsustainable path, especially when it is subsidized by public taxes.

Solar PV is very energy intensive to make. With conservation (I know this is a bad word here in 'murica), efficiency upgrades, and solar hot water most homes could reduce the size of PV system needed by an easy 50%. Putting in gigantic systems to compensate for waste and unconscious consumption is more of the same brain dead thinking that has us facing the mess we are.

Now that the days of cheap energy are behind us, clearly there is no value in subsidizing any kind of waste.

Please, lets put the cart behind the horse.

Todd Cory
Mt. Shasta Energy Services

Homeowners considering this 'deal' should heed Todd's word's of wisdom. You should also read the fine print,which is where you will likely find that you are giving Solar City a second mortgage on your house.

A few other issues to consider--
  What happens when you want, or need, to sell your house? Will the new owner want the same deal?

Who is responsible for moving the panels in order to replace the shingles that were 15 y.o. when you signed up? Did the installers, who are getting paid flat rate,seal the mounting penetrations properly? What provisions were made to facilitate reroofing?

How will installation details be handled when that 4 KW gets installed on a complicated, multi-slope roofline?

If poor quality control results in failed systems, even just some, the whole 'city' will suffer. Bad news travels faster than good !

It has taken 20 years to get over the shyster installed solar hot water systems done in the early 80's. Even ' good corporate citizen's ' can take advantage of naive people wanting to do the right thing. Here in Richmond ,VA we had few shysters, but when the tax credits were obviously set to expire, Reynolds Solar decided to move their large inventory by hiring  'condo salesmen' and with mass mailings, seminars, free cheap camera's and a roll of Reynolds Wrap, they sold solar hot water systems for 8-10 thousand dollars that their own dealers were selling in other markets for $4500.

Also, for the rest of the solar industry, a little history. Abuse of the 'too good to be sustainable' tax credits of the early 80's led to the perfect excuse for the Reagan administration to let them expire, suddenly, precipitously, and disastrously for the solar industry and the country, it is now apparent !

There is a huge need for non-profit , educational groups like the American Solar Energy Society--ASES--and their local, state, and regional Chapters, to provide education for the public. I believe experienced solar professionals also will find it in their self interest to be involved with this effort.

Ken Schaal
CommonWealth Solar,LLC

More and more people are choosing to live in rented apartments for financial and lifestyle reasons.   I know that I prefer the convenience of my apartment complex.

It would seem to me that instead of trying to get real estate owners to invest in solar panels, why not go all the way and build solar powered apartment complexes.  In other words, I think more alternative energy providers should consider creating vertical markets rather than trying to sell a raw technology horizontally.

I bet that if the initial cost forces up rents by, say $100 per month, there are going to be people who would be willing to take on the cost in order to reduce their CO2 footprint and be part of the Green Evolution.

The important part is.... PV panels are being installed
The method of funding is utility bills
The installations are in large (block sized) lots
This increases market demand for PV production
They are grid tied and reduce loads on natural gas peaker plants
The installation company is training it's installers from the local population

Yes it's important that we get conservation measures in place. Yes it's important that quality systems are installed. Leases of units should ensure that
Yes we need to expand availablility to the 40% of Californians that rent.

But, once these units are installed they will produce power and that will be excess power if the homeowner takes due diligance steps to reduce utility bills.

And, the utility bill tie-in once established can be used as a model for financing other conservation methods like geo-exchange thermal management.

And, the "sell-the-whole-block" model is even better for geo-exchange thermal systems as a limited number of deep wells works as well as many shallow wells. Since much of the cost is hourly trenching or drill-rig fees bunching a blocks worth of ground loops is the best way to make the financials work.

I say this is a great idea.