Leased Solar Systems Are Failing Across America
Leased Solar Systems Are Failing Across America
The companies that own many leased solar systems on Americans' rooftops are going out of business, leaving homeowners in a lurch.
Was anyone else thrown by "leased solar systems"?
84Why buy new, when you can just trade it in for a new model in a few millennia? You know a solar system loses 20% of its initial value just by driving it off the lot?
39Honestly I was wondering if it would be a better deal than my current apartment lease.
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Should we expect more second hand solar panels on the market at lower prices because of this ? Seems obvious but what do I know ?
11As more of anything is out there, more will be for sale used, but how badly will anyone want them? They degrade over time and installing is a huge cost. How much are you willing to pay for mismatched used solar panels from a 15 year old system?
2Might be interesting for a "do it yourself" project, from someone after retirement who has enough land space. But only if the price is low enough.
New panels without installation goes for what now ? Maybe $1 or $2 per peek Watts ? I would say 10% to 20% of the new panel price would be interesting.5
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm.
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power.
What’s more, it’s expensive to send a truck to repair rooftop solar panels because electricians have been in high demand and because a company’s clients may be spread out across a metropolitan area, requiring technicians to spend a lot of time in transit.
Even if solar leases are not as popular as they once were, the last decade has seen an explosion of the as-a-service model, where customers don’t own things like software or music or even homes but instead pay a monthly fee.
The adopters of rooftop solar today may have fewer problems than the customers of the last decade; more people are now buying their systems outright, rather than leasing them, and the rise of battery storage has enabled homeowners to use more of the energy their panels generate, saving more money.
That doesn’t solve the problem that I and many others are facing—we can’t sign up for new solar systems or take advantage of new tax credits because we’re already stuck with older panels on our homes that are owned by companies that don’t seem to want to maintain them.
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