The folks over at Clean Power Finance sent us this press release earlier today indicating an expansion of their residential solar financing product to new markets. This is indeed good news as residential solar financing is an important enabler for making solar more affordable for more customers. With low money down or no money down down options becoming more widely available, and with more choice than ever before, potential solar customers can now get clean, long term energy right from their rooftop, without big upfront costs.
Here at GetSolar just about every conversation we have with homeowners involves a discussion around solar financing options; be it leasing, power purchase agreement, loan, home equity line, cash, you name it. Residential Leases and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) have driven some 30% of California solar installations in the last year, and for good reason. For many customers, they can start saving on their electric bills right away, while keeping more cash in their pocket for other expenses. We welcome additional financing choices in these markets, as it helps our partner installers offer creative solutions to residential solar customers, allowing them to save money on their utility bills while helping America strengthen its energy future.
Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) sent us an email today talking about the Solyndra hearings taking place on Capital Hill. Apparently the company (Solyndra) is not providing much information on their situation, which has led to a partial information vacuum during the hearings around the current state of solar in the United States. With the media machine buzzing and looking for sound bites in a politically charged environment (GetSolar’s opinion), surrounding a high-profile clean-tech failure, the SEIA is making all effort to set the record straight about solar in the US.
After taking on a billion dollars of private venture capital, and a further half billion dollars in Federal loan guarantees, Solyndra finds (among other things that will surely come to light in the investigations) that it no longer has a cost competitive solar product in today’s much lower-cost solar market. In an effort to dispel various solar technology myths the SEIA has published several of the most prevalent myths, which we have re-published here for your reading. Rhone Resch was on C-SPAN this morning (see video below), providing additional background information about Solyndra and solar in the US.
MYTH #1: There are no jobs created by the solar industry FACT: Today, the solar industry employs more than 100,000 Americans, double the amount of solar workers in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in all 50 states. The industry grew by 69 percent in the past year, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy.
MYTH #2: Solar only works in states like California. FACT: Solar energy works in all 50 states. Germany has more installed solar capacity than any other country and it receives roughly the same amount of sunshine as Alaska. Less than one-third of the photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2011 was installed in California. In fact, more PV was installed on commercial buildings in New Jersey than in California during that quarter.
MYTH #3: The market for solar energy is very small. FACT: The U.S. solar energy market is big and growing fast. In 2010 alone, $6 billion worth of finished solar energy systems were installed in the U.S. The U.S. solar energy market grew 69 percent in the second quarter of 2011, helping aid our economic recovery. In fact, many analysts project that the U.S. will become the largest solar market in the world in the next few years.
MYTH #4: Solar energy is too expensive for widespread usage. FACT: Solar energy is already cost effective in many locations across America. The price of solar modules has dropped 30 percent since the beginning of 2010 as the industry scales up and companies innovate with new products and manufacturing techniques. Also, new financing options allow homeowners and businesses to start saving money on their utility bills as soon as they turn on their solar systems.
MYTH #5: If solar power really worked, it wouldn’t need government support. FACT: The U.S. decided long ago to support energy sources since energy drives our economy. Every major energy source and technology has benefited from federal government R&D support and incentives of various types. This is true of the oil, natural gas, hydroelectric, nuclear and biofuels industries—all of which continue to receive government support today.
MYTH #6: Solar products are all made in China. FACT: The U.S. was a significant net exporter of solar products in 2010, including to China. Total U.S. exports of solar energy products was $5.6 billion, with net exports totaling $2 billion. Of the $6 billion in direct value created by U.S. solar installations in 2010, more than $4.4 billion, or 75 percent of the value, accrued to the United States.
MYTH #7: Solar devices require more energy to manufacture than they produce in their lifetime. FACT: Studies have conclusively demonstrated that energy payback for photovoltaic (PV) energy is now less than three years. Given that PV module warranties are generally in excess of 20 years, a PV system will produce far more energy over its lifetime than was consumed to manufacture it. Technological progress is reducing the energy consumption of PV manufacturing further. Energy output and input ratios for concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar water heating equipment are also favorable.
MYTH #8: Solar energy needs a technological revolution to go mainstream. FACT: Solar technologies available today already provide enough electricity to power 630,000 American homes. Solar panel prices have fallen 30 percent in the past year and a half. No scientific breakthroughs are required for solar energy to power America. Solar is ready and available today; it only needs smart and consistent policy to thrive.
San Francisco, CA January 27th, 2010. GetSolar has opened a limited number of Partner Slots in the New Jersey (NJ) solar installation market for Solar Integration Companies doing business in New Jersey.
GetSolar is a leader in the New Jersey solar market, offering the highest quality residential and commercial leads available. If your solar company has very high standards, deep experience in the PV market, and can pass our rigorous background verification process, we’d like to hear from you. Please contact a GetSolar team member to discuss your needs, the program, and to begin the application process.
This opportunity only recently became available, as we have just added several slots to our long established NJ partner program. We work closely with our partners on marketing, lead generation, and customer service/feedback to provide outstanding channel support. For further information please contact us at (800) 265-3646 x 703
I just returned from San Diego last night after a very interesting week listening to many of the pioneers of solar electric power at the ASES Solar 2008 Conference. Brad Collins, Executive Director of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) gave a very interesting talk about what he learned at the first World Future Energy Summit (WFES) held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Collins spoke of a project called MASDAR (which in Arabic means the source). MASDAR is a new project comprising a company, a university, a venture fund, and a research and technology park all wrapped up in a new city. All zero carbon, zero waste and utilizing a national carbon capture and storage network.
MASDAR is designed to be a research hub, a focal point, a “one-stop shopping” center for clean tech, renewable energy, and green building. It is certainly a bold and visionary action with four main objectives. One, it is designed to diversify the petroleum-based economy of the UAE. Two, it is designed to keep Abu Dhabi a strong relevant player in the changing global energy markets. Three, it establishes a research and technology base that will attract further talent and capital. Fourth, it addresses the pressing issues of global energy and climate. The government plans on building the city in two years.
MASDAR is owned by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, which is wholly owned by the government. It is a $15 billion initiative, which in a nation of 350,000 residents, represents $43,000 per resident. At the center of the 6 km² carbon neutral city will be the MASDAR Institute, a nonprofit independent research university built with the help from the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) of the United States. The institute is set up to be a regional and international center for research and technology in clean energy. There will be a clean tech investment fund and various initiatives to jumpstart new companies.
After listening to Mr. Collins’ presentation I was struck by one question. The United States has plenty of desert, it has plenty of capital, and it has plenty of world-class research universities; so why not build a carbon neutral research city in the United States to establish a world technology leadership model?
Often times when home owners look at solar electric systems for their homes, the number of years to “payback” (time to recoup the initial capital investment) emerges as an important criteria in the decision process. Simply put: the longer the time period to payback, the less attractive the investment appears. Or is it?
A simple payback analysis is performed by arriving at the system cost after rebates and incentives have been deducted, which is your “net system cost”. This is the actual cost to the consumer of functioning solar electric panels installed and generating electricity. Next you take the annual savings in utility bills for the first and subsequent years until that number adds up to be equal to your “net system cost”. The number of years of savings it takes to equal the cost of the system is your “Payback”. When adding up the annual savings, it is important to include energy inflation; this captures an important aspect of a renewable energy system, while fossil fuel generated electricity tends to get more expensive every year, a solar electric system produces electricity at a relatively fixed cost over the typical 25 year life time of a system.
Simple enough, but what’s missing here? Several important pieces of the puzzle are missing in a simple payback analysis (we will look at two). First, the answer (number of years) only looks at the number of years and amount of money saved up to break even, not after break even, when the fun and the savings really kick in. A typical residential solar system in California might earn 2 to 3 times it’s initial cost over the lifetime of the system. For this reason a total lifetime analysis is more useful in gaging the financial return of a solar electric system. You may ask: “But what if I move before the full 25 years of the system are used up and I don’t get to reap the benefits of all the back end savings?” That is an excellent question (and the subject of a future post) to which the short answer is: the value of the remaining lifetime of the system should be added to the value of the home.
Another missing piece is the “cash flow” of purchasing a solar electric system using a loan and comparing the monthly cost of the loan to the monthly savings on the utility bill. In a market like California, depending on the interest rate of the loan (roughly 8%) and the length of the loan, homeowners can see a “positive monthly cash flow” right from almost the beginning. This is because the homeowner saves more on the utility bill every month (averaged over the whole year, 12 month cycle) than the monthly cost of the loan. All things being equal, if you can lower your monthly energy outlay, that would be a good thing. This aspect is not captured in a “thirteen year” payback number. Andy Black does some great work in the area of solar financial payback.
So even though a solar panel system may take quite a few years to pay for itself, it is a long term hedge against energy inflation, and depending on financing options, may start lowering your monthly energy spend very early in the system lifetime. If solar technology is to gain widespread adoption in the US and abroad, it must make financial sense. Years to payback is just one type of analysis when researching the viability of solar, and because of the limitations of what data it captures and communicates, it may not be the best.
The British Government produced this climate challenge video for its citizens, I find it very interesting not so much for the content, but for the fact that the government put it out. As I watched the video (many of the same themes you may have seen from the film “An Inconvenient Truth”) I was struck by the fact that this was a government talking; I kept asking myself – if this same video could ever be made by our current administration in the United States?I like to stay fairly apolitical and balanced in discussions, this blog no exception, however occasionally I feel it is ok to ask some delicate questions, especially when they involve topics I feel are very serious and may have long term impact. If the answer to the above question is no, then why? Is the answer due to the personal beliefs of those in the administration? Or is it due to entrenched big-business-special-interest in Washington crippling Congress? Or is it possibly due to some political expediency to not alarm the populace? According to the Governor of California the debate on climate change is over, the science is irrefutable, and in the absence of federal leadership, his State and others are taking matters into their own hands.
Yet why is this? This is America after all; we are supposed to be smarter and better than this; in fact many a big business is asking, indeed pleading, that the Federal Government put regulations in place, so that business can better plan for and price environmental and carbon risk into their strategic plans. Leading candidates from both political parties have placed significant emphasis on environmental and climate change issues in their campaigns. Not a day goes by that we don’t see news or magazine article discussing the issue. But what from our Executive Leadership? At the least we hope the Bush-Cheney Administration is no longer blacking out and censoring entire sections of Climate Science Reports.
At best we see President Bush has now acknowledged the concept of climate change and introduced an alternative plan to specific carbon cap and trade. Some skeptics felt this plan was an effort to preempt other more stringent curbs. It is however a start, a few short years ago the president would barely utter the words. When I read news reports about White House initiatives on climate change I cannot help but ponder the origins of the position change, the legitimacy of the effort, and the commitment of the most senior Administration staff to change.
If renewable energy technologies are to grow and compete with fossil fuel burning energy generation, then the fully allocated cost of generating energy with fossil fuel must be priced-in at the market (carbon emissions, government subsidies, etc) through a carbon cap and trade mechanism, or similar allocation scheme. Otherwise, the cleaner and newer renewable energy technologies will be handicapped and encounter slower market adoption rates. Are we as a nation ready for the challenge?
sent us this press release earlier today indicating an expansion of their residential solar financing product to new markets. This is indeed good news as residential solar financing is an important enabler for making solar more affordable for more customers. With low money down or no money down down options becoming more widely available, and with more choice than ever before, potential solar customers can now get clean, long term energy right from their rooftop, without big upfront costs.
GetSolar has opened a limited number of Partner Slots in the New Jersey (NJ) solar installation market for Solar Integration Companies doing business in New Jersey.
