Solar Power International, Solar Leasing

Austin, we have a lot of catching up to do.

It was nine years ago yesterday that I was at St David's Hospital pumping out my pride-and-joy hopeful (with no drugs I may add — I don't necessarily recommend it) and in reflection I couldn't have been more proud when I walked out of the front door for halloween this year to a front yard of freshly buried graves of the poor Mikel Jonz and Bab Smth's of the world in the 9 year old imagination. As we spray painted the dog to look like a tiger and got our bowl of mini-playdoh's ready to hand out (cause giving out candy is soo Houston) it reminded me how lucky my son is to be raised in Austin.

So, what's been going on lately? I'll start with the earliest item on the list and that is: SPI – Solar Power International in Dallas held October 2011 

After helping SolarNexus get ready for SPI (they are a software company for the solar industry, http://SolarNexus.com) – I headed to Dallas to meet the faces I had been Skyping over the months. My interest in SPI was primarily to see what tools were out there in software and what was up and coming, and to visit with friends that came in from all over the country. Not ambitious, I realize but I did discover some great stuff. Solar Nexus is an online CRM tool for the solar industry specifically. They're namesake is their goal. "Lead management, sales quotes, project management, and purchasing." I have to tell you — when I saw what these guys were putting together, I fell in love with their sincerity in the solar solutions they are working to provide. There are other proposal softwares out there — but none that I have found so far that provide a comprehensive, no-BS platform, and partners with several types of companies and services so you're not stuck with one proprietary option (to say, order wholesale equipment). Like the Hair Club for Men — I'm not just a spokeswoman, I am also a client.

    

 

The other person(s) I met (arguably accosted and abducted) was Derek who is the founder of Solar Design Tool (http://SolarDesignTool.com), and his co-peeps Emily, and Matthew. I include teaching this tool in my 4-hour presentation for Imagine Solar in their Solar Business Professional workshop — so I already knew I liked it — but after seeing the demonstration of the version that is coming out soon, I am just flipping pancakes waiting for the new release to go live. Here is an abridged version of my time with the cats at Solar Design Tool during SPI: 'Are you Derek?' Yes. 'Get into my car' I'm a vegan. 'Block par-tay!' I couldn't find a version of CAD that I liked for Solar Design Tool so I programmed my own from scratch. 'You're a genius, get into my car.' I'll leave judgement to you, dear readers. 

      

And for the last volley I want to touch on the world of solar leasing.  One of my goals at SPI was to fish out information of what residential solar leasing is about, and how it may be relevant to Texas. Since my business (Texas Indie Solar) is basically a consulting and support firm for installers and professionals I try to stay on top of the trends and future creme fillings of the industry that will help independent businesses become even more successful (and perhaps, more delicious). After meeting with a couple of solar leasing finance companies at SPI I have to say I was unimpressed with the knowledge of sales persons' of their own industry. That is plural with intent. While I understand that solar leasing has unequivocally helped some businesses in California grow exponentially over the past couple of years – that fact alone is far from a selling point (remember the mortgage mess we got ourselves into?). So this week, an agent from the company SunCap Financial graciously came from Houston to meet with myself and a few of my clients respectively — to introduce us to solar leasing and the services they have to offer. Since I haven't actually worked with SunCap, I don't have an opinion yet – but based off of their sales pitch in combination with the failed sales pitches at SPI, I can say that either 1) I am too dumb to get the game. 2) The solar leasing industry is so complicated that even if one does understand the intricacies there are no words – be it jargon or laymen – to help the solar sales person explain it in a meaningful way to the homeowner. 3) This industry is so new, that there is no streamline way of doing things yet, leaving a wild west style of implementation and complication. The only reason I left that meeting with SunCap with my ego intact is because none of my highly educated, solar-experienced clients in tow understood certain aspects any better than I did.

 One major criticism I have of SunCap specifically is the standard answer to hard-pressed questions went something like this: 'It doesn't make sense because we use proprietary algorithms in our proprietary software that I can't show you because you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I can explain it' (of which he never produced an NDA to sign) OR 'Well, I know more than I'm allowed to tell you – believe me, if my job weren't on the line, I would love to explain it'.

The critique to follow from my fingers to your eyes has to do with solar leasing itself and not SunCap Financial as a service provider. Please educated readers — comment, critique, educate, and email me your thoughts — I want to discuss this further. Residential solar leasing provides the homeowner with the option of leasing a PV system on top of their roof instead of purchasing it. The idea is if you add up your utility bill plus the cost of the lease after the solar array is on your roof, it will equal less than your bills before adding solar and lock in your usage rates (through a guaranteed matched-production-plus-inflation set by the financing company) for the next 20 years. In addition, a leased system will be the responsibility of the leasing company, so any power loss or problems that happen over 20 years will be covered by your lessor, including that inverter replacement that will need to be coughed up in year 10. This option will also allow for a homeowner to pay for the system over time instead of coming up with the several thousand dollars it takes (after rebates and incentives).

But how will that fair in Texas? Our energy prices are super low compared to the places where leasing has flourished – such as California, that has high rates (up to $.35/kw) and complicated pricing structures including tiered electricity rates. This makes for leasing to not be such a great advantage, even though you may save a little in the long run. Solar itself is also getting less expensive by the minute in addition to rebate and incentive programs maturing and evolving making owning solar more appealing. Over the next 20 years, technology may well become unrecognizable in regards to solar, and while anything producing useable electricity contains inherent value regardless of time served – being locked into such a long term contract with a system that you don't own seems less appealing. Which brings me to the ownership issue. As a decennary Texan, I have observed a great value in the right to own property here – and I'm not sure how comfortable the Texan mindset is with installing someone else's (very expensive) property on top of their homes. I believe I could dedicate an article just to this point alone.. but I'm going to leave it at this and look forward to your end of the conversation.

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