Free Solar Panel Installation for Honda owners if you buy the electricity they generate

Georgia Public Service Commission doesn't allow this because they only allow GA Power (Southern Co.) to be the monopoly provider of electricity.

It is illegal for someone to do this in GA.

Quote from changwah : With a prepaid lease, you make one lump sum payment upfront and everything is covered for the next 20 years. This is a much better deal as it work like you own the system with a much lower upfront cost.

And how much did it cost , in your case to pre-pay for 20 years?

Quote from ToadKilla : what happens to panels in hail storms :/ I am thinking that panels would charge some kind of battery that has a household inverter attached to it that powers some /all of the power outlets. If that's true, they need a freakin' big array of batteries.

They get annihilated in hail storms (golf ball and above). On the plus side though, your homeowner's insurance will probably pay you for them in the event of damage by wind or hail.

Quote from erg112 : I read your link. Wikipedia eh? The first thing I noticed was that Wikipedia lumped together renewable subsidies with efficiency subsidies, when the two are unrelated. Anyone can edit Wikipedia. It's wise to seek backup sources. Try this: http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/ And to get an idea of the full extent of subsidies accrued to our poor struggling fossil energy corporations read the section on the US in the online book (Inventory of Estimated Budgetary Support and Tax Expenditures for Fossil Fuels 2013) available here: http://www.oecd.org/site/tadffss/

Just to comment on this whole tax thing.
The first big tax reformer in this country, Andrew Mellon, had something to say on this issue. He is actually the guy who championed the idea of lowering taxes for the good of the country. Granted, his idea was that lowering taxes would increase tax revenue(not spur the economy) and it actually worked.
I mention him because his initial plan was to cut all of the massive tax loopholes and subsidies being provided to people and corporations. He very quickly realized that this would never happen because those tax exemptions had been 'purchased' by campaign contributions.

The morale of this story is that almost every powerful industry and group has lobbied for significant tax exemptions. This is why many major companies pay no taxes and why the capital gains tax, for example, is so much lower than it needs to be.

This is also why almost every attempt to "clean up" tax code has failed. Those exemptions, loopholes, subsidies, etc aren't mistakes. They were put there because someone donated millions of dollars to Senator X's campaign.

Customer's could do this themselves, and avoid tacky customer surcharge fees, rising costs, taxes, etc for all eternity.

I have a residential solar panel system on my home in NJ. I would like to share whatever knowledge I have accumulated so far.

It is best if the roof on your home is;
-facing south to maximize generation of solar power (Solar companies will Google map your home to check before even discussing system with you)
-not surrounded by trees to shade the panels
-is a fairly new roof (You do not want to remove the solar panels to replace the roof. It is best if your roof has at least 20 years or more left on its useful life. If not you should be prepared to re-roof before installing panels)


There are 2 ways to be in the solar game. Own or lease them.

Buying/Owning Residential Solar Panel Systems

When folks Buy/own the panels;
-they get to use all the solar power they can generate eliminating their electric bill. (You want to eventually convert all of your gas appliances to electric eliminating/reducing your gas bill, plug in your electric car - buy a Tesla ;-)
-sell the excess solar power as "SRECs" (Solar Renewable Energy Certificates) [wikipedia.org] to the utility companies.
-get some government rebates [cleanenergyauthority.com] on the purchase price to offset the purchase
-are responsible for all the components of the system including replacement of any damaged parts.
-If located on business/rental property tax write offs come into play.

As previously mentioned "SRECs" used to sell for $600+ in NJ. So initial purchasers of solar panels who financed their purchase used this $600+ amount to calculate their breakeven point in terms # of years. When it was $600+ that breakeven was 3-5 years. Now that more folks have panels the supply of "SRECs" [srectrade.com] has increased thereby reducing their demand. This resulted in the revenue generated by the SRECs, which now sell for $100+, to drop substantially. So their breakeven has now been stretched out to 7-15 years. As the amount of panels generating SRECs increases I anticipate SRECs resales will continue to drop.

Leasing a Residential Solar Panel System

I leased a solar panel system from NJR. Here is the Linky to their CURRENT program [njrcleanenergyventures.com].

Our monthly electric bill paid on a budget plan was $225. To wipe out that bill I needed a 10KW system. To purchase that would have cost $30-$40k OR, to lease them was a FIXED RATE of $9.50 per KW per month (or $95) for 240 months ($95 x 240 = $22,800).

By leasing them;
-the panels are installed at absolutely no cost to me. Not a penny.
-my electric bill for 20 years is fixed at $95 per month. (What is the value of $95 15 years from now? $30?)
-I get to use all the solar power the panels generate for free. Whatever I don't use goes to the lease holding utility company for them to resell in their grid. So a lessor, me, wants to use as much as I can consume by converting gas appliances to electric eliminating gas bills, plug in a car, and am not so concerned running my a/c during the summer all day, running my outdoor pool, etc. I am also not concerned with the resale value of SRECs.
-I am not responsible for the repair or maintenance of the whole system. I don't own it. Unless the damage is from my own negligence everything else is covered by the utility company.
-after 20 years I can purchase the system at whatever remaining value it has at that point or the utility company removes it from my roof.
-the system is transferrable to ANY new homeowners through the life of the lease
-the flip side of that coin is if I/future owner wants to permanently remove the system I/they owe the remaining lease payments on the lease.
-since my roof faces south the panels shade my roof thereby keeping my attic cooler in the summer.

(So why would a utility company do this? They are required to have at least 20% of their energy generated by renewable sources by 2020, plus they hope you don't use all the solar power up.)

So far;
-utility company replaced my old electric meter with a new digital meter (know as "Net Meter"). As I generate solar power during sunlight hours the meter goes backwards. When I use power at night it goes forward. As a result I have had no electric bill other than the $95 lase payment. As soon as my water heater and dryer go I convert them to electric. Prolly can just do it now anyway.

-they have withstood 2 hurricanes without any minor changes while my rain downspouts detached themselves from my house and reattached themselves to my neighbors roofs. :-)
-They self clean. Snow immediately melts off them as soon as sunlight hits the glass.
-they are not allowed to generate power during blackouts because if the power went back out on the grid it would electricute the linemen. (They can not rely on you turning off the main panel switch preventing this). So I have a 5800W generator with a transfer panel I had installed before I leased the panels.

Now their leases are only for 15 years instead of 20 and they are considering raising the monthly lease payments for new leases.

Some have said "How are you going to sell your house with those on your roof". My response is "An educated consumer will be my best prospective buyer". They will realize the savings as the price of electricity goes up while their monthly cost is fixed.

What if I want to add on to the house. What happens to the panels? It take them 4 hours to detach them from the system, 4 hours to reattach. Cost is approx $100 per hour in labor.

In conclusion, there are various leasing programs and you need to shop them around to look for the best terms. IMHO, a fixed cost system will probably cost less over time than one that has adjustable rates/costs.

Quote from dreamexecution : They get money, you save* money, it's not rocket science.

Doing it on your own isn't rocket science, but does take a library card, the internet, and an aptitude for learning.

Quote from 722 : Anyone care to summarize the general idea of this? Don't really care to read up on it.

Then it is not for you.

Quote from RonPaulFan : Georgia Public Service Commission doesn't allow this because they only allow GA Power (Southern Co.) to be the monopoly provider of electricity. It is illegal for someone to do this in GA.

Hey it could always be worse, you could be stuck with the corrupt and even more expensive Cobb EMC like I am...I would love to have GA Power at my house.

Quote from slicklupaka : I have a residential solar panel system on my home in NJ. I would like to share whatever knowledge I have accumulated so far.

Thank you slicklupaka for the information! I hope Solar panels technology improves greatly over the next 5 years, and becomes cheaper as it's mass produced for every house in the world, so electricity becomes self-sufficient, and the Oil Companies are forced to change their business models around.

Not available in NH.

Sigh.

Interesting how Electric companies are caring less about how much electricity you use and charge you just to have them as your "service provider". $18/mth minimum you have to pay them, even if you didn't use one watt of power, if you are signed up for their service, but is the only way to profit if you have excess generation from the system.

Quote from slicklupaka : ... To wipe out that bill I needed a 10KW system. To purchase that would have cost $30-$40k OR, to lease them was a FIXED RATE of $9.50 per KW per month (or $95) for 240 months ($95 x 240 = $22,800)...

Question for you. What happens if you start using more energy than the panels create?

This is probably a good deal overall because everything I have read says that the payback period if you buy and install solar panels yourself as as longer or longer than the expected lifetime of the panels themselves.