
Interested in Solar Power but don’t have tens of thousands of dollars? In 2008 the average residential Solar System cost and expensive $5.40 per watt of capacity, while commercial ones cost $4.20. These figures translates to 25 to 46 cents per kilowatt hour of residential power or 17 to 29 cents for concentrating commercial solar plant. Compare the above numbers to roughly 7 to 10 cents for coal and natural gas.
In the San Francisco Bay Area many PG&E customers have a tiered energy pricing that starts at 10 cents, but jumps to 26 cents, 35 cents and 49 cents. An average US home in in PG&E’s territory is paying upto 26-49 cents/KWHr for more than 50% of their electricity usage. This makes solar much more affordable.
Solar City has an interesting program where you finance a solar system and pay a monthly lease. The SolarLease payment and lower electric bill will be less than your current electric bill. They own the panels and you rent them by paying the cost of the power. They advertise a medium sized 4kW system with $0 down, no security deposit, and $110 a month with 3.9% annual interest rate for 15 years on approved credit. When the lease ends you can extend it, remove the panels, or upgrade.

Savings with Solar Panel Leasing (Credit: Solar City)
You can save $10,050 over the next 15 years, because you have locked in low price for solar electricity while utility rates continue to increase.
Sun Run partners with local companies to provide solar systems and financing. They have a Solar Power Purchase Agreement or solar PPA where you pay a fixed, set rate for all the solar electricity produced by the solar panels. Sun Run also has a solar lease you pay a monthly payment to rent the solar panels on your roof. There may also be a small installation fee upfront with either plan, usually under $1000.
The amount of your monthly solar lease payment is the same each month, regardless of how much solar electricity your system produces. This is the main difference between a solar lease and a solar power purchase agreement.
Leasing your system does not qualify you for Federal or State solar rebates, the company installing them gets the rebates.
Other providers should have similar offers in other areas.
There are several items that affected my Solar Panel installation that they may not cover, make sure you review our past solar panel articles.
Filed under: Alternative Energy, Effort, Energy, Green, Hard, Home, Solar | Tags: PGE, Solar City, Solar Lease, Solar Panel Lease, Sun Run |
Recent Comments