July 30, 2010
This is the second guest post from a SunRun customer (first by Ted Reynolds of Orange County, California). Check out Glenn Ware’s post below about how he was finally able to switch to solar, thanks to SunRun’s Colorado solar leasing program. If you’re a SunRun customer and interested in contributing a guest post to our blog, please email customers@sunrunhome.com. We’re eager to add new voices to our online solar community and we look forward to hearing from you!
The Greatest Barrier to Going Solar? Upfront Cost.
I had wanted to go solar for a long time. I never thought it would be possible due to costs, but over the past year, I noticed a few of our neighbors in Colorado going solar. I wondered if things were changing in the residential solar industry.
One day, I read an article about President Obama visiting a local solar installer in Colorado, Namaste, to discuss solar jobs and government incentives. I contacted Namaste to learn more about home solar and its costs. Through those conversations, we decided that maybe the time was right for us to switch to solar, to save money and reduce our effect on the environment.
We were getting ready to sign our purchase order when word came out that our utility company, Xcel Energy, was reducing their solar rebates. This rebate change was going to increase our out-of-pocket investment for purchasing our home solar system by $3,000! We were forced to reconsider our decision to go solar because of the higher costs and longer timeline for our return on investment. Once again, we felt that solar was out of our reach and we would have to stick with our utility company.
The Solution We’d Been Waiting For: Solar Leasing!
A few months later, we heard about a new solar leasing program that was coming to Colorado – the SunRun Power Plan. I started researching the program, but put off making a decision.
That all changed when Xcel raised their rates again and initiated a tiered-rate summer program, which charged more money per kilowatt used above the first 500 kilowatts. I knew that with our air conditioner running in the summer, our family consumed up to 800 kilowatts. I contacted Namaste again and requested two solar quotes – one qoute for an outright purchase and another through SunRun’s solar leasing program. The quote for a solar system purchase was now $2,000 higher than the quote that I had received previously. This was, once again, due to additional rebate drops from Xcel.
On the other hand, the SunRun solar quote was so appealing and we realized that home solar was now within our reach! SunRun would allow us to upgrade our home to solar for what we were currently paying per month for electricity, with no additional money down. We would be able to go solar without a large upfront payment. In addition, we would lock in our electrical rates for the term of the lease – 20 years. It didn’t take us long to realize that SunRun was exactly what we had been waiting for. We didn’t have to take money out of our savings and started saving from day one. Plus, SunRun maintains the system for us so there are no worries about additional costs down the road.
Our system is now online and we can’t be happier. We are saving money, reducing our impact on the environment and making a statement that we want to be part of the new energy solution rather then part of the current carbon based energy problem.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I couldn’t agree more. I could have written most of this blog post myself. Looking forward to a year with SunRun come January. If you are considering leasing even a little, do yourself and the environment a favor, get an estimate and do it!
{ 1 trackback }