Renting solar panels: Can anyone find the catch? Is there one?
This sounds completely awesome. I learned about it at the Troy Farmer's Market this morning. It's basically a long-term leased solar power system for your home. The upfront cost is a $500 security deposit. You lock in a monthly rental rate for the equipment based on the current price of electricity now, and it doesn't go up for 25 years. It's tied into the grid, and you get credits when you generate more than you use, so you don't have to worry about off-peak/night storage. They design the system custom to your location and power usage, and handle all the maintenance and repair.
I even read the fine print, and though there's stuff in there that annoys me about all contracts these days (right to use collection agencies, mandatory arbitration), in general it seemed far more reasonable and customer-friendly than most companies these days. For example, if your state's net metering laws change so that it's not as financially advantageous for you anymore, you can cancel and get your security deposit back even though it wasn't the company's fault.
Of course all this assumes they get enough interest to build the plants and roll out, which won't happen for at least 18 months. But unless I'm missing something, it seems to me like there should be a huge market for this: All of use concerned about global warming and energy prices etc., who just can't make an upfront investment in a solar system. (And, as they point out, if the technology really improves in 5 years you can opt out of this for the loss of your security deposit, instead of having spent $40,000 to own an obsolete system.)
They are apparently committed to building a plant somewhere in the Northeast, possibly around Kingston. They've apparently got a new process that refines silicone enough for solar panels, but not to computer chip standards, which should make them cheaper.
Anyhow, you don't have to commit until after they design your system, but we thought we'd throw this out to see if anyone can point out to us why it isn't as awesome as it sounds. Oh, and also because we figure a bunch of you other homeowners would be as interested as we are.