How to go solar without putting panels on your roof

If you’d like to use solar power in your home but can’t put panels on your roof, help may be on the way. Over the past few months, several states passed legislation to support the concept of community solar, which gives homeowners the chance to use solar instead of conventional power.

Community solar allows consumers to share solar power from a common system with other consumers. The source of the solar power can be owned by municipal utilities, independent solar developers, a group of homeowners or businesses, or community and nonprofit organizations such as electric co-ops. There are various models in which such projects are operated and billed — participants can own, lease or subscribe to a specified number of panels or a portion of the system and typically receive electricity or monetary credits in proportion to their share of the project. Consumers who opt for community solar continue to work with their utility, but sign on for solar in addition to conventional energy.

Today, there are about 15.8 million homes in the U.S. that have the potential to go solar, according to GTM Research, the research arm of energy media company Greentech Media. Only a sliver of these homes have installed rooftop solar power systems. About 49% of American households wish to go solar but can’t because they don’t have the right kind of roof to host solar panels, they don’t own the houses they live in, or can’t afford to invest in the systems, which may take about four years to pay back, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a Colorado-based government institution that conducts research and development in renewable energy and energy efficiency . The solution? Community or shared solar, the segment that experts believe will drive the solar market over the next few years, as more states in the country pass legislation to support it. Read More…

How to go solar without putting panels on your roof

Musk Proposes $2.9B ‘No Brainer’ Tesla-SolarCity Deal

Tesla Motors has offered $2.9 billion to acquire SolarCity in a bid to combine clean energy business efforts, as shareholder balk at the potential deal. Bloomberg’s Matt Miller reports on “Bloomberg .” Read More…

Musk Proposes $2.9B ‘No Brainer’ Tesla-SolarCity Deal

Future of Rooftop Solar: Loan Product Could Transform SolarCity Corp

SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) has struggled to live up to its own expectations for most of the last year and it’s showing in the company’s stock price. The former market darling has lost nearly two-thirds of its value and investors are now wondering what its future looks like. A new loan product launched this quarter could tell us a lot about the future of residential solar and how SolarCity fits in that future.

Saving customers more money -Solar leases, often known by their other name “power purchase agreements”, both terms describing an arrangement where a customer pays for solar energy over the course of 20 years or more, have been the dominant financing method in residential solar over the past five years, but that may be ending. Solar loans, where the customer actually buys solar panels with a loan, provide a lot of benefits that leases can’t.

They don’t like advertising it, but SolarCity and Vivint Solar (NYSE:VSLR) normally charge increasing prices over time, meaning over the course of 20 years the cost of a kWh of energy could nearly double. If electricity prices don’t rise at the same rate or faster the cost of solar could be underwater by the end of the contract. Read More….

Future of Rooftop Solar: Loan Product Could Transform SolarCity Corp

Install a money making machine on your roof

Install a money making machine on your roof

Solar Is the Fastest-Growing Energy, Says Top Fossil Fuel Major

The world’s growing fleet of solar panels generated a third more electricity in 2015 than a year earlier, making power captured from the sun the world’s fastest growing source of energy, according to BP Plc.

Solar generation grew 33 percent, with China overtaking the U.S. and Germany as world leader in 2015, BP said in its 65th annual statistical review into world energy published on Wednesday. The London-based oil company exited from solar in 2011 after 40 yearsin the business.

“Sharp cost reductions have gone hand-in-hand with rapid growth in renewable energy. Solar power production has increased more than 60-fold in 10 years, doubling capacity every 20 months,” said Spencer Dale, BP chief economist, in a speech that also predicted continued falls in the costs of solar. Get a quote for a Solar rooftop system Read More…

Solar Is the Fastest-Growing Energy, Says Top Fossil Fuel Major

Installing rooftop solar panels has never been more affordable

Installing rooftop solar panels has never been more affordable