The spin cell is a set of cones one foot high by one foot long. Their appearance on a roof might create the image of a “gnome home.” However, these might be better placed on the ground than on a rooftop for aesthetics.

Link here: http://theenergycollective.com/ecskris/178531/new-solar-technology-may-entirely-change-game

DOW Chemical is working on a roof shingle that has solar PV performance. The solar shingles would be put on a house by roofers during new construction or upon re-roofing.

Read here: reston.com/costofcentralsolar.pdf

Borenstein assumed a rooftop solar project size of 10 kilowatts, which is double the average size of a typical residential installation. Furthermore, the cost of solar has come down by nearly half since 2008. Combined, this means Borenstein’s figure of roughly $90,000 is about 4 times the average residential solar cost today. And that is before any subsidies.

The discussion of subsidies is also highly misleading, leaving out key information. Upfront cash rebates covered about a quarter of the installed cost for residential solar in California in 2008–since that time the cash rebate levels have been systematically reduced to the point where many new residential solar projects are being built without any upfront cash subsidy at all, and the market has never been larger. This is, at least in part, because the cost of solar decreased more than enough to offset the loss of the subsidy.

The second major solar subsidy is the 30% federal investment tax credit. This tax credit is a percentage of the installed price, so the value of the credit decreases as the price of solar goes down. Since rooftop solar costs about about half of what it did in 2008, that means the tax subsidy is also worth about half.

Net metering is claimed by some people to be “subsidy”, but this new report pointed out that overall the group of customers with rooftop solar are in fact paying money to the utility. While people with rooftop solar lower their utility bill by getting a credit for the solar energy they produce–spinning their meter backwards– most people do not totally zero out their bills. The remaining amount paid by these solar customers to the utility was estimated by the report to more than cover the claimed net metering “subsidy”.

As for leases, the leasing companies get additional tax benefits that are not available to a residential customer–particularly the 5 year accelerated depreciation. The customer benefits from not having to come up with the money to buy a rooftop solar system, but pays a modest monthly lease price instead. Also, the buyout cost for a residential project, if the customer wants to take ownership after the conclusion of the lease, is not “tens of thousands of dollars” as the commenter above claims, but rather usually only a few thousand dollars–the depreciated value, which is a small fraction of the initial price.

It is sad to see so much misinformation being circulated on this topic. The progress of solar energy is actually a remarkable story.

I feel sorry for all of those (relatively few) suckers who have leased solar panels on their homes. We looked into it and it sounds good until you do due diligence. There are at least two big problems with this scheme.

The first is that the amortization/buyout schedule is ridiculous. Even after 20 years you would still have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to buy the panels from the leasing company. The second problem is that if you sell your home the buyer has to qualify for the solar panel lease or you have to pay the exorbitant buyout cost for the panels. I called half a dozen real estate agents and none of them had ever sold a home with leased solar panels, nor could they recommend anyone who had.

And their are other problems like the additional cost of re-roofing or roof repairs, the prospect of getting stuck with relatively inefficient panels for decades as technology improves and the fact that the panels are just plain ugly. Solar co-generation on a mass scale has already failed in Spain, and, barring some breakthrough technology, it will fail in Crazyfornia too. But the Libtards feel good about it and that’s really what counts right?