Reply to Solar panels on residential home

Forum Index » Environment, Weather, and Green Living

Reply to "Solar panels on residential home"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I live in the Southwest -- sunshine 330 days a year.

Our power company used to write a check every year for the extra energy solar panels generated and "sold back" to the grid. But because we have so much sun, they were writing LOTS of BIG checks.

Now the balance just rolls over. I have a friend whose latest power bill had a balance of -$12,000. (Yes, negative.)[/quote]

So they are not making money off it, just getting an energy "credit"?????[/quote]

The old contracts gave you money for selling back your power.

[/quote]

So guessing that "new" ones don't do that anymore? So there's no incentive for people to get panels then. [/quote]

Not "no incentive" because you get your electricity for free. But yes, the change is a problem in sunny western/southwestern states where people used to cover their whole bill plus get cash back. It's not really an issue in the DMV because it's almost unheard-of here to have so much sun that solar meets your electrical needs year-round - here, a credit on your bill can be used up in the winter so you are never in a cash-back situation anyway.

I'm in NoVA and put solar on my roof 3 years ago. I did not cover every surface because I think the panels are ugly, so my panels only meet 40% of my use. Pay-off period is 10 years. I also sell SRECs for $45 a month. Leasing panels is not allowed in Virginia (which is a good policy). [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics