Bringing solar savings to those who really need it
As the price of solar panels has fallen in recent years, many new financing models have emerged, each of which aims to lower the financial hurdles for homeowners to go solar. Solar installation companies offer long-term financing at somewhat below your current monthly electric bill; community solar projects buy in bulk and spread the savings to homeowners; and leasing outfits own the solar they put on your roof. But all of these avenues have tended to target those already primed to go renewable, and their financial benefits often take years to pay off.
That’s why this article in Slate caught my eye:
Take PosiGen, a 4-year-old company based in New Orleans that pairs energy-efficiency upgrades with solar-panel leases—all for no money down and monthly payments of $50 or $60. PosiGen doesn’t target yuppies in Boulder, Colorado. A survey covering one-third of its 6,000-odd customers found that “our average customer is a 56-65-year-old African-American female, who spends at least four hours a week at church,” said Aaron Dirks, the intense 40-year-old West Point grad who founded the company. Three-quarters of its installations have been in census tracts where the area median income is below 120 percent of the national median. Call it blue-collar green.
PosiGen’s goal is to reduce monthly energy bills by at least $50—and that’s not the familiar “save at least as much as you pay us” threshold, but saving $50 after paying them. One customer’s electric bill had been $185-300 (varying with the seasons); after PosiGen’s efficiency and solar upgrades, it was $75-150, including her $60 monthly payment to PosiGen. As is typical with lease arrangements, homeowners get to use all the solar electric generated during the day, and they buy additional energy from the grid as needed; PosiGen retains ownership of the panels and receives the revenue generated by any excess daytime solar energy that’s sold to the local electric utility.
I’m not sure how PosiGen is keeping the costs so low, but kudos to them for targeting populations that can really benefit from significantly reduced electric bills—they often even forego credit checks, having found that their customers value the savings enough to make their modest payments even when times are tough. They’ve installed 5000 systems in Louisiana, and recently expanded to Albany, NY and Bridgeport, CT.