I'm interested. I hope this isn't too personal of a question, but roughly how much did it cost you to get the whole thing started?
Ok it gets very confusing here because right now there are a lot of companies offering a lot of different financial programs.
For a 9kW system, installed with all the bells and whistles, CASH in Southern California, would cost in the low $30,000 - $32,000 range, after rebates and credits. The rebates are based on state and region, so depending which state you live in, and which part of the state, you may save more or less.
However some companies are offering financial deals that work out better than cash. "How is this?" you ask?
Right now with the Green Energy revolution, there are a lot of tax incentives to be a green energy "utility", plus possible benefits for selling carbon offset credits, plant & equipment depreciation, etc. So some Solar companies are setting up a separate "utility" company where they install the panels on your roof, and you LEASE them for a specified period of time. They own the equipment, have to maintain it, etc, and you get the electricity while paying them a fee. In our case, we could buy the panels for $32K, or we could LEASE them for 15 years for a single up-front cash payment of $20K. After 15 years they will either give us the panels, or they have to come and remove them and return our roof back to its original condition.
In many ways, we felt the lease option was a better deal. First, because the majority of the benefit comes in the early years when the panels are most efficient, second because who knows where technology will be in 15 years and we will probably want to replace the entire system by then, and third because we like the idea that they have now contracted with us to keep the system maintained and replace any worn-out or inefficient elements of the system. We have an online monitoring system that shows exactly how much electricity is being generated and how efficiently the system is running. If the panels get dirty they'll even come wash them off
Lot of info, but it was very confusing when we finally decided on the program that worked for us. We had been looking at solar for 3 years so we had a lot of history to look at, and prices have been slowly coming down and we were able to cut a good deal (in my opinion). We are figuring about a 5 year payback.
Another way to think about it is this - we are currently paying $.25 per kWh for our electricity from San Diego Gas & Electric. With this solar system lease deal, we have done the equivalent of locking in an electrical rate of $.12 per kWh for the next 15 years (contractually guaranteed). We are expecting our solar panels to generate more than that (lowering costs further) and if they give us the panels at 15 years, all electricity generated from that point forward will be "free" - and the panels should still be better than 80% efficient. Plus, by then, if the utilities continue to increase rates as they have for the last 20+ years, the rate for electricity in Southern California will be over $.60 per kWh.
