Tweet
New poster, been lurking for a while but ran into something I've never heard of before so I'm really hoping someone has some idea what exactly this is and if its even legal...
So I've been looking into getting solar panels on my house (I'm in the Raleigh, NC area). Submitted my info to a lead gen company (not solar reviews) and got back a few quotes. One was quite odd, because the quote itself was normal but then it said something like "Check out the attached PDF to see how you can save much more" or something like that. Here's the PDF.
Specifically, the first option, "Limited Partner for Demonstrational Solar." They somehow are using some financial engineering to mark up the cost of panels/installation to $8/watt, have that paid for by a company (limited partnership) that you buy into, then assign the 30% tax credit to you which is much higher than it would normally be because it is based on that inflated price.
But wait, where does the money come from for the partnership to pay this higher price, if you're only putting in $3/watt or so? Obviously it has to come from somewhere, right? The rep told me this: Your partnership buy in and buy out accounts for 36% of the total $8/watt, the depreciation pay in accounts for 39% which gets paid into the total $8/watt over 5 years, and the remaining 25% is paid over 5 years through other local/state rebates and federal grant money, we include an ROI Guarantee for your 30% and buyout option at year 5 so you become the sole owner whether we get all the USDA grant money or not.
Basically, in theory, by taking advantage of buying into this partnership instead of directly paying for the panels, I can get high-end panasonic panels installed for less than a dollar a watt. Anyone ever hear of such a thing? My BS detector is going off, but maybe I'm naive and this is a well-known technique to take advantage of generous government subsidies.
So I've been looking into getting solar panels on my house (I'm in the Raleigh, NC area). Submitted my info to a lead gen company (not solar reviews) and got back a few quotes. One was quite odd, because the quote itself was normal but then it said something like "Check out the attached PDF to see how you can save much more" or something like that. Here's the PDF.
Specifically, the first option, "Limited Partner for Demonstrational Solar." They somehow are using some financial engineering to mark up the cost of panels/installation to $8/watt, have that paid for by a company (limited partnership) that you buy into, then assign the 30% tax credit to you which is much higher than it would normally be because it is based on that inflated price.
But wait, where does the money come from for the partnership to pay this higher price, if you're only putting in $3/watt or so? Obviously it has to come from somewhere, right? The rep told me this: Your partnership buy in and buy out accounts for 36% of the total $8/watt, the depreciation pay in accounts for 39% which gets paid into the total $8/watt over 5 years, and the remaining 25% is paid over 5 years through other local/state rebates and federal grant money, we include an ROI Guarantee for your 30% and buyout option at year 5 so you become the sole owner whether we get all the USDA grant money or not.
Basically, in theory, by taking advantage of buying into this partnership instead of directly paying for the panels, I can get high-end panasonic panels installed for less than a dollar a watt. Anyone ever hear of such a thing? My BS detector is going off, but maybe I'm naive and this is a well-known technique to take advantage of generous government subsidies.
Comment