There’s always a catch though, today even ultracapacitors have a poorer energy storage by weight than lithium batteries. There are advanced being made in nanotechnology that might change this in the coming years.

The beauty of leases and PPAs is that you pay little or nothing out of pocket and you get solar on your roof. Typically the companies also guarantee the systems and perform all maintenance and repairs needed over a 20yr period. Finally, you save some money because they sell you the electricity that the system produces at a reduced and locked in rate. Sounds too good to be true! Well, it is to good to be true so let me explain how these companies are making a killing on you.

1. In the last two years the costs to implement a solar system have dropped to about half what they were. The solar lease companies are still selling you a system for 50-60K and that is the debt you are taking on, no matter how they word it.
2. At the same time the federal government has passed a law that give you 30% of the system install cost back on your taxes. Instead of you getting that money, the installing company gets it on their inflated install cost. While it may only cost them 30k to install your system they can show paperwork you sign that it’s worth 60k so they get 30% or about 20k from the federal government.
3. Some state governments have created one time per watt incentives that can be anywhere from 2k-20k. In these states the company again collects this money so that in many cases they are ahead of the game before you begin paying off the 50-60k “loan” they gave you.
4. Some states have also created Solar Renewable Energy Credit programs. These SREC programs pay the solar owner from $40-$600 for each megawatt generated according to complex formulas that vary from state to state. For a typical 8KW installation in the northeast this generates 8 SRECs a year and these are often worth more than the electricity generated. Guess who gets these payments, the solar lease company.
5. But, what about their warranty to maintain the panels for 20 years? All solar panels and inverters, the main elements of the solar array, are warrantied by the manufacturer for 25 years. So they aren’t giving you much there, perhaps peace of mind that you only need to make one call to get it fixed.
6. The average American moves every 5 years. What happens when you still have 15 yrs on your solar lease or PPA and you want to move? Well, you have the saddle the new buyer with it, what do you think this is gonna do to the value of your house?

So, if you don’t have the money then maybe this makes sense. But, if you do have the money or can get a home equity loan for the money then you’ll make out a lot better in the long run financing it yourself.

Someone with a $150/mo electric bill who wants to reduce it to zero is a good example. The actual amount of kilowatts that $150 represents would be twice as high in California as it is in Pennsylvania. Add to that the fact that a system of half the size can provide as much power in CA than in PA because of the hours of sunlight in each location.

One thing I hope to simplify with anapode solar are issue like this. We can ask a customer their location and from that use a table of solar incidence and average hours of sun to determine the actual performance they can expect from a solar system. Then we can determine their usage from their actual electric bill. We can combine that with what they pay and determine how sensible solar is for their specific location. Solar in Arizona is slam dunk while in Washington state it’s a lot more difficult.

One final thought, certain solar panel technologies are better at generating power in cloudy conditions. I would definitely want to recommend those panels to people who live in typically overcast areas.

Solar panel prices have dropped significantly this year so the balance of the system (bos) is making up a greater part of the expense. This makes it critical to examine every part of the solar install process from planning & permits to mechanical and electrical hookup and final commissioning. I want to determine what is essential and what is not. What adds value and what is pointless. What can be simplified and combined. It is my belief that residential is where the greatest prospects exist and where the most efficencies can be achieved.

Currently residential installations are treated the same as commercial by all contractors. This is a mistake. A lot of things that make sense for a large commercial system are unnecessary in the smaller residential system of 2-12k. In my next post we’ll look at the steps involved and see what can be eliminated.

nopCommerce looked promising but turned out to be very very slow.
dash Commerce also looked good but does not have ongoing community development so it looks like a dead end.

While there are other “open” .NET carts they tend to be more obscure. So, we are moving our search to PHP which is a more more viable open source environment

My focus for the new business is to simplify solar to the point that handy homeowners can install it them selves. If they choose a contractor then the expense should be greatly reduced using our simplified equipment and installation methods.

Ideally I’d like to have “Plug in Solar” panels these would plug into a 240v plug like the ones on big air conditioners. After the first panel is plugged into the wall then the rest plug into the last one in a simple daisy chain. This would be a huge improvement over todays DC panels that require an electrical degree to wire. The knowledge, effort and safety requirements are all much simpler with AC power.

While that solves the electrical problem, the other part of the puzzle is the actual mechanical mounting of panels. Generally the panels and inverter(s) make up 50-60% of the cost of a system while the balance of the system (BOS) makes up 40%. This ratio is actually getting worse as panel and inverter prices come down but installation hardware and labor stays high.

To solve the BOS puzzle I propose to eliminate the racks used to mount solar panels on a roof or a ground mount. I am planning to replace the solar panel frame with a chanelized frame that accepts hardware to connect panels to the mounting surface and each other. Additionally, this panel to panel mounting will eliminate the time consuming process of grounding each panel as is done today.

I have many ideas and will be opening my store after returning from the Solar Power International conference in Dallas on the 17th of October.

For years I’ve dreamed of making solar power as simple as plugging in an appliance. I have achieved it! Coming soon, I will be selling plug in solar panels. The homeowner’s job will be to screw the panels to something secure that faces south then run an outlet to plug them into.

Stay tuned.