Leased Solar Systems Are Failing Across America
Leased Solar Systems Are Failing Across America
The companies that own many leased solar systems on Americans' rooftops are going out of business, leaving homeowners in a lurch.
Was anyone else thrown by "leased solar systems"?
Why buy new, when you can just trade it in for a new model in a few millennia? You know a solar system loses 20% of its initial value just by driving it off the lot?
Technically, they lose about 20% of their generation capacity within a few hours of first exposing them to sunlight. It's one of those weird quirks that researchers have been trying to solve for decades.
Also, they tend to lose the rest of their generation capacity over decades, not millennia. The industry standard is for a panel to be able to produce 80% of installed capacity after 25 years.
"meanwhile, the amount of energy guaranteed each year lessened as the panels aged. "
So it is pretty much this except the companies whilst leasing were not maintaining nor do you get to trade in.
Honestly I was wondering if it would be a better deal than my current apartment lease.
Why use this article being reposted? It is a butthurt reporter with an axe to grind vomiting on her solar providers.
An atypical experience which she even states in the article. This should not really be news, IMHO.
I actually appreciate this article. I'm not near where I need to be to invest in solar, but the details of the corporate fuckery that goes on in rooftop solar providers is helpful to learn.
Yeah, I had a pushy door to door salesman shove a tablet in my face telling me that the solar "purchase" would be completely free. I'm interested in solar but know "free" always has a catch and told him to pound sand. I checked it out later that day and the website for the company he represented (I forget which) and they started nothing "free" about it.
I did learn that solar is quite expensive, from the install process to the leasing of equipment. And very little to no information is available regarding repair of the panels, from malfunction to hail damage. And what happens if it's time to redo shingles on your roof? No idea, but I'm sure the salesmen will tell you something along the lines of "it's covered" or "don't worry about it right now". Well that's the way my brain works. I plan for long term and think of any obscure variables that may come along the way.
There's also the ROI on solar. When you purchase or lease the panels it takes about 10 years before you can actually see a benefit in your bank account.
I'd love to go solar, but until it's actually affordable and makes sense I can't bring myself to pull the trigger. Maybe in 2030 when the US's current tax incentive is due to expire I may take another look.
Should we expect more second hand solar panels on the market at lower prices because of this ? Seems obvious but what do I know ?
As more of anything is out there, more will be for sale used, but how badly will anyone want them? They degrade over time and installing is a huge cost. How much are you willing to pay for mismatched used solar panels from a 15 year old system?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm.
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power.
What’s more, it’s expensive to send a truck to repair rooftop solar panels because electricians have been in high demand and because a company’s clients may be spread out across a metropolitan area, requiring technicians to spend a lot of time in transit.
Even if solar leases are not as popular as they once were, the last decade has seen an explosion of the as-a-service model, where customers don’t own things like software or music or even homes but instead pay a monthly fee.
The adopters of rooftop solar today may have fewer problems than the customers of the last decade; more people are now buying their systems outright, rather than leasing them, and the rise of battery storage has enabled homeowners to use more of the energy their panels generate, saving more money.
That doesn’t solve the problem that I and many others are facing—we can’t sign up for new solar systems or take advantage of new tax credits because we’re already stuck with older panels on our homes that are owned by companies that don’t seem to want to maintain them.
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