SolarLease quotes. Please advise.

[iandowny]

Hi,

Live in Lewisville, TX.
100 percent insolation. My present annual consumption (will increase with growing kids later) - 11,347kWh

I have this quote from SolarCity:

For 6.13kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly Payment - 49.00
No annual increase

2.
Initial Payment - 15,170.00
Monthly - Zero
No Annual increase

For both : Guaranteed 8134kWH first year - 7395kWH 20th year.

For 8.09kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly - 95.00
No Annual increase

2.
Initial - 20,100.00
Monthly - Zero
No annual increase

I have CoServ and I believe I won't get 4.8% increase every year like their proposal showed me. Any suggestions on whether this is a good or a bad deal?

[Ian S]

Hi,

Live in Lewisville, TX.
100 percent insolation. My present annual consumption (will increase with growing kids later) - 11,347kWh

I have this quote from SolarCity:

For 6.13kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly Payment - 49.00
No annual increase

2.
Initial Payment - 15,170.00
Monthly - Zero
No Annual increase

For both : Guaranteed 8134kWH first year - 7395kWH 20th year.

For 8.09kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly - 95.00
No Annual increase

2.
Initial - 20,100.00
Monthly - Zero
No annual increase

I have CoServ and I believe I won't get 4.8% increase every year like their proposal showed me. Any suggestions on whether this is a good or a bad deal?

Avoid the monthly payments if you can afford to. Then you should get a couple of quotes for outright purchase from another installer than SolarCity. Subtract the 30% federal tax credit and any other incentives from the outright purchase price then compare to prepaid lease. The prepaid lease should be lower otherwise outright purchase is generally the better deal. Then you have to decide whether solar, either purchase or prepaid lease, makes financial sense at all. That depends on the cost of electricity where you live and whether or not it's a flat rate or tiered and in the latter case how it's tiered. It all comes down to whether the savings over the long term are worth the initial investment.

[iandowny]

http://www.coserv.com/TogetherWeSave/ResidentialRebates/SolarEnergyRebate/tabid/288/Default.aspx

This is our rebates page. Looks like CoServ DOES support 'net metering'. If so, can I assume that they will pay 100 percent of they would have charged me for the same amount of electricity?

[inetdog]

http://www.coserv.com/TogetherWeSave...8/Default.aspx

This is our rebates page. Looks like CoServ DOES support 'net metering'. If so, can I assume that they will pay 100 percent of they would have charged me for the same amount of electricity?

Don't you just wish they did.
If you follow the Tariff link from that page you see the real thing:

1. If you use more than you generate, you pay for the difference at applicable rates and you also pay the fixed charges even if your net usage is zero.
2. If over a one month billing period you produce more than you use, you are screwed.

When the energy supplied by the Customer exceeds the energy supplied by the Cooperative during a billing period, the monthly charge and/or minimum bill of the applicable retail rate schedule shall be billed by the Cooperative in addition to the monthly metering charge, and the excess energy shall be provided at no charge to the Cooperative.

To the extent that your production gives an excess during the day and you use that surplus up at night, you have Net Metering.

With most POCOs that offer net billing, and in states where net metering is mandatory, you can at least store up extra usage credits from one month to the next with the "use it or lose it" reckoning happening only once per year.

[iandowny]

Don't you just wish they did.
If you follow the Tariff link from that page you see the real thing:

1. If you use more than you generate, you pay for the difference at applicable rates and you also pay the fixed charges even if your net usage is zero.

Hmm. Thank you.

2. If over a one month billing period you produce more than you use, you are screwed.

That's how the SolarLease person was trying to sell me the lease as. As if it's a 1 to 1 ratio.

To the extent that your production gives an excess during the day and you use that surplus up at night, you have Net Metering.

This leads me to where I was thinking of leasing a Nissan Leaf where I guess I can use the electricity by 12AM?

Thank you for looking at the tariff link for me. I started reading the relevant parts, but, couldn't make heads or tails of whatever I read.

So, for now, I think the most impact I can do to is to lease an electric car instead of leasing solar with Grid tie system in Texas. The more I look at the lease agreement and the electric provider hurdles, it does not look like a cost effective proposition.

[inetdog]

This leads me to where I was thinking of leasing a Nissan Leaf where I guess I can use the electricity by 12AM?

It is not that rigid. The totaling only happens once per month when you meter is read.
What I was trying to distinguish it from was:
1. The system where your production is metered separately, with incentives for production, yet you pay the same rate for power all of the time, and get nothing for whatever you send back.
2. The system with some POCOs where any moment in time you are importing power you pay the retail rate and any time you are exporting it you get the wholesale rate. Two separate totals are kept by the meter. That is even worse than what you have.

[KRenn]

Hi,

Live in Lewisville, TX.
100 percent insolation. My present annual consumption (will increase with growing kids later) - 11,347kWh

I have this quote from SolarCity:

For 6.13kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly Payment - 49.00
No annual increase

2.
Initial Payment - 15,170.00
Monthly - Zero
No Annual increase

For both : Guaranteed 8134kWH first year - 7395kWH 20th year.

For 8.09kW

1.
Initial Payment - 10K even
Monthly - 95.00
No Annual increase

2.
Initial - 20,100.00
Monthly - Zero
No annual increase

I have CoServ and I believe I won't get 4.8% increase every year like their proposal showed me. Any suggestions on whether this is a good or a bad deal?

In Texas, there's companies doing systems for significantly less than what Solar City is charging you. Considering that the Prepaid Price is $15,200 for a 6k and you get NO incentives from the federal government, that's not a very good deal when companies are selling solar systems for $3.30 a watt. 6kwx$3.30=$19,800.....and with that comes a 30% Federal Income Tax credit, which reduces your overall cost to about $13,850 total....so you actually own the system 100% for less total money.


And no, you won't get an annual 4.8% increase, that's just absolutely and ridiculously absurd. Right now in a lot of places around the country, energy prices are relatively flat, or at most increasing at 1.5-2% annually.


Since the pricing on panels has dropped off so much, I would recommend looking at a purchase as opposed to a lease, financially it is just a better deal at this junction. A year ago, it was an entirely different situation, but now.......for the savings, I would purchase a system outright.

[iandowny]

In Texas, there's companies doing systems for significantly less than what Solar City is charging you.

Now, I decided to pay instead of lease option. Would you be able to suggest some of the companies in DFW area?