Solar Energy as Investment

HelioPower Offers Upcoming Community Solar Events starting Tuesday, August 17

Are you curious if solar will help your family budget?  Maybe you've gone solar and would like your friends and family to enjoy the same benefits you are getting from solar? If yes is the answer for either question then we'd like to invite you to one of our upcoming solar community events.

Our solar community events are designed to be no-pressure, informational

The Needham's in Murrieta watch their meter spin backwards as solar by HelioPower cuts their electric bill.

style meetings.  They will give you, your friends and family members a chance to learn how solar works and if it can help you reduce or eliminate your electric bill.  As our utility bills continue to rise, freeing up the money spent on electricity can help your family's budget and return financial benefits for years to come.

Free community events will be conducted for solar information in San Diego, solar in Corona, solar in Redlands, solar in Valley Center and The Frontier Projects event for solar in Rancho Cucamonga. You can find out about the specific programs available in your region and if solar can assist you in reducing or eliminating your rising electric bill.

To reserve your seat at a solar community event near you click here or call us directly at 1 87-SOLAR-888.

One solar customer's story

From the Needhams’ in Murrieta, HelioPower solar power customers since 2006: Over the past few years we have been seeing our energy bills rise as much as 30% annually with no end in sight. Having always had a passion for energy conservation, we thought it was time to take action. When we heard about the state solar rebate that covers one third of the cost, the $2,000 federal tax credit (is now 30% no cap), and the instant increase in our property value… we figured that even at our age it was worth the investment.

After researching solar providers, we found HelioPower provided the best solar panels on the market and offered the lowest price. The installation was a treat for us. They were the most efficient and neatest installers we have ever seen in action. There was never any mess at the end of the day and it took a short 3 days to install. The panels blend nicely into our roof and if we did not brag about it so much, we doubt our neighbors would ever notice.

About six weeks later we received our rebate check from the state. Our panels were turned on April 19th, 2006 and we have not paid for electricity since. We LOVE to watch the meter run backward, especially with all the heat this past summer. We would recommend HelioPower to anyone interested in Solar Power.

Bill and Peggy Needham

Solar Home in Murrieta, CA

Friday, May 28, 2010. An editorial reprinted from Green Builder Media by Sara Gutterman, CEO & Publisher.

To many people, Memorial Day means a hot barbeque, a much welcome three-day weekend, and the beginning of summer vacation. It's easy to forget the significance of the holiday, which, originally called Decoration Day, is a commemoration of U.S. citizens who died while in military service.

Memorial Day, originally enacted after the American Civil War, is an historical reminder of the virtues and values that our country has believed to be worth fighting for—equal rights, democracy, freedom.

This Memorial Day, I'd like to pay special homage to the individuals who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of our nation's current leading cause: energy. These courageous warriors have given us the tremendous gift our luxurious Western lifestyle.

In honor of the people have who died this past year in the explosion on the Deep Water Horizon, in collapsed mines, and on the battlefields of the Middle-East, I challenge each of us this Memorial Day weekend to determine what we can do to turn the tide in the losing battle for oil.

It's time to fight for a new kind of freedom—freedom from the tyranny and hypocrisy that enables terrorism; freedom from closed markets that enable the suppression of clean energy alternatives; freedom from the business greed that enables horrific disasters like the runaway BP oil spill.

It's time for our nation, and our global community, to add proper stewardship to the list of values that we hold dear. A religious man would say that this type of stewardship is our God-given right. A scientist would say that it is a responsibility that we need to respect in order to ensure the proper functioning of global environmental services. An atheist would say that it is simply good common sense.

It's time to enter into the Sustainability Age. Let us turn our swords into plowshares and our military might into creative ideas that will stimulate our economy and preserve our natural world.

Please write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com with your thoughts about how we can win our energy wars.

For more information about clean, green "USA energy" generated from solar power please visit us at HelioPower.

By Derek Girling,
HelioPower Solar Energy Consultant

The newest, most exciting trend in residential solar today is on the financing side. Leases and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) make solar available to almost every homeowner. Radio airwaves are thick with companies pitching “No Money Down” or even “Cash Back” offers.

A well structured solar financing agreement should be a Win/Win/Win proposition – A win for the homeowner who gets the benefits of low cost green solar energy without the relatively large upfront investment, a win for the solar installer who grows their business with new customers, and a win for the solar financing partner whose investors generate a steady revenue stream for years to come.

But just like every other offer that may come your way, the devil is in the details!

Solar is a long-term investment and you should be careful to make sure that you’re negotiating the best agreement possible with a reputable, experienced installer. When evaluating a financing proposal from a company, there are several things you should consider when reviewing their agreement.

First, if you are serious about going solar, ask the solar company’s representative for a copy of their agreement. If they are reluctant to provide this to you prior to signing up, be wary. Some companies will not even send out a representative unless you’ve committed to them! Reputable companies are transparent with their agreements and terms and conditions. They’ll strive to make sure you’re comfortable with them before asking you to sign a contract.

Next, see if you can determine how much they are they charging for the system and how much the buyout is at the end of the agreement. Many companies make this information very difficult to discover! One well-known nationally advertised company charges as much as 30% more per Watt than most installers for similar systems. After 10-20 years of making your monthly payments, are they asking you to pay almost half the original cost to buyout the system? Are you responsible for paying to remove the system should you choose not to buy it? Add up the total of the payments and the buyout at the end and see if this seems reasonable.

Are the payments fixed or do they escalate? If it’s a PPA, then the payments should be fixed at a reasonable kilowatt hour (kWh) price for the life of the contract. If it’s a lease, the payments should escalate at a no more than a nominal rate (2.5 – 3%/year) to cover inflation. Anything more than that sounds like a low teaser payment to get you contracted followed by an increasing rate of return for the finance company.

Virtually all homeowners are installing their very first system and are not familiar with the technology. One of the benefits of a financing agreement can be freeing the homeowner from the responsibility of maintaining and insuring a system. Well-structured agreements place the responsibility for the system with the system owner (the financing company) and also guarantee the amount of energy the system should deliver. If the financing company owns the system, but you’re still responsible for the maintenance, walk away!

Speaking of maintenance, what provisions does the finance company make for funding the maintenance? The best agreements stipulate that an appropriate amount of money is held separately ensuring your system is maintained for the duration of the agreement. This also protects you in the event that the finance company is sold, goes bankrupt, or sells your contract to someone else. The best contracts make it impossible for a company to separate the revenue stream (your payments) from the responsibility of maintenance.

Lastly, what options are available to you to get out of the contract?  If you move before the term is up, can you easily and at no cost transfer the agreement to the new homeowner?  Can you buy the system for a reasonable price at anytime? Can you pre-pay your remaining payments at a discount reflecting the reduced time value of money?  Can you continue on a year-to-year basis without purchasing the system when the initial agreement expires?

Remember, a good, flexible and equitable agreement allows a homeowner to get the benefits of low cost green power now at a fair price from a reputable installer with several options to transfer, buyout, or purchase the system. Read the fine print, ask lots of questions and, most importantly, if the representative is pressuring you to sign something you don’t understand, find another company!

Contact Derek Girling at DGirling@HelioPower.com

Solar Financing Structure Empowers Tax Disregarded Entities to Reap ARRA and Rebate Benefits

By Steve LoRusso

Vice President, Commercial Sales, HelioPower

Nonprofits have seemingly been out of the luck when it came to monetizing the 30% federal cash grant for renewable energy installations provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  Tax disregarded entities have not been able to take advantage of the lucrative 30% treasury cash grant or the federal and state depreciation benefits (IRS 200 MACRS).  However with the participation of a lease partner, organizations that were previously left out of the ARRA funding picture now have a new opportunity to build solar power generating systems on their buildings utilizing the support of the ARRA cash grant for renewable energy installations. 

This solar financing structure involves an interested third party utilizing the tax incentives in the role of a Site-Delivered Equipment Provider.  The resulting solar financing product is much simpler and less costly to arrange than a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) for smaller sized solar power installations. The minimum transaction size is $200,000.

This solar lease structure is available to well-established, creditworthy U.S. based companies and nonprofit organizations. It can also benefit municipalities, churches, schools, and 501c3 structured entities that want to leverage ARRA funds and state utility rebates to go solar. The effectiveness of this solar financing structure will be impacted by construction site considerations and the financial strength of the host as it would be in any other type of solar installation.

HelioPower is working with financial partners who are able to offer a low cost seven (7) year financing program for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to financially strong commercial firms and nonprofit entities in California and surrounding states. We work with our solar financing partners to provide 100% financing of a PV system at a fixed payment for 7 years with an 8.5 year amortization. Normally no additional collateral is required other than the solar equipment. The nonprofit entity applies to the U.S. Treasury for the 30% cash grant which, when received, is applied against the financing agreement.  Additionally the monthly lease payments required from the organization are offset for the first five years by the CA State Performance Based Rebate payments to the property owner.

We see great promise for endowment foundations, grant makers and personal contributors that make annual contributions to their selected charities, to rethink their contributions.  These contributions could take the form of milestone payments on energy leases.  Thus the supported solar panel system benefits the organization for decades  - generating electricity from a self-generated and sustainable source, hedging the nonprofit against escalating and unpredictable power rates thus creating a stabilized utility burden.

As in the Old Chinese Proverb, “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” When supporters fund a turnkey solar electric system through a true lease solar financing structure they empower the organization to create their own electricity for years to come as well as enable them to benefit from ARRA federal cash grants and CA state solar incentives. 

Disclaimer:  This is not tax advice.  We encourage you to talk with your tax advisor before proceeding with any financial agreement.

Source information:

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Click here for link to page that includes Frequently Asked Questions:

21. Question: Is an applicant who owns eligible energy property eligible to receive payment if the energy property is leased to a non-profit or otherwise ineligible entity?

Answer:  Yes.  If the owner of the energy property is the applicant and is otherwise eligible, the fact that the property is being leased to an ineligible entity does not impact the eligibility of the owner/applicant provided it is a true lease and not a disguised sale. 

For more information contact Steve LoRusso directly at SLoRusso@HelioPower.com.  

By Scott Gordon, HelioPower

If you read Part I of the Ugly Side of Solar series, you learned that proper design, product selection, and installation make all the difference in the aesthetics of your solar system and can mean the difference between a good looking system that’s the envy of your friends and neighbors and one that discourages those same people from ever considering solar for their own homes.

In the second part of the series, I discussed the ugly side of solar from an installation perspective. While many systems look fine on the surface, underneath they are ticking time bombs of rust, roof leaks, ground faults, and corrosion. In part II, I also covered the ugly side of picking the wrong solar contractor and gave you pointers to help you avoid getting ripped off. In Part III, I will cover shading: the most deleterious of solar production killers.

While most folks agree that shaded solar panels produce less power than unshaded ones, many consumers grossly underestimate just how big an impact shading has on the annual production of a solar system. The photo above shows a particularly egregious example of solar shading. As you will soon learn, this customer would have been much better off NOT buying the five panels installed on the upper left roof. Why? Read on…

The vast majority of solar systems (95% +) installed today are designed with ‘String Inverters’. The SMA SunnyBoy inverter is an example of a string inverter you may have heard of. String inverters rely on solar modules to be connected in series (aka ‘strings’) to achieve the minimum power output the inverter needs in order to turn on and operate efficiently. Without going into a tremendous amount of detail on the subject (which is outside the scope of this article), know that whatever happens to one panel in the series affects every panel in the series. An analogy that may help you make sense of this phenomenon is one involving a battery powered toy car. If your toy car takes eight AA batteries, and you put eight brand new batteries in it, it’ll run fast and furious. This is because the batteries are fully charged (i.e. unshaded). Take one of those brand new batteries out and replace it with a half charged battery and that same toy car will run more slowly (i.e. a half shaded solar panel). Replace a brand new battery with a dead one, and the car may not work at all or run very slowly (i.e. a fully shaded panel or panels). With this information, please examine the photo below:

The shading in this photo is akin to having two dead and two half dead batteries in your toy car. Sure, the rest of the array looks fine, but the array as a whole could be operating at as little as half capacity. To illustrate this further, please consider the following examples:

As you can see, it doesn’t take much shading for a panel’s production to plummet to zero. Shading of just one cell (bottom right), cuts the whole module’s production by one half! This drop in production affects the entire string thereby robbing the solar power system of hundreds or potentially thousands of kilowatt hours per year. Over the 25+ year expected lifespan of the system, this adds up to some serious cash. In this scenario, you are in fact buying very expensive solar panels that are providing you with very little benefit.

So how do we solve this problem? One way is to chop or top trees. Sometimes, as is the case with palms, the tree needs to be removed altogether. Other times, as is the case with a tall chimney, we lose an entire section of roof. We employ shading analysis tools to help us find an unshaded or less shading spot on the roof. Here is what the output of a typical shading analysis tool looks like:

The data presented in this tool (Wiley ASSET) aids an integrator in proper panel placement and gives us insight into the objects doing the most significant shading. In the analysis above, it’s a neighboring house and neighboring trees causing all of the problems. Fortunately, we were able to find a place on the roof where these shading issues are mitigated, but removal of the house and the neighbor’s palms are obviously not an option. Overall, we can expect 92% performance from this system.

Another way to address shading is to skip the string inverter altogether and design your system with micro inverters (Enphase is the most popular of this technology). Micro inverters treat each solar panel individually. Thus, shading that affects one panel is isolated to only that panel. This increases your overall system yield in highly shaded situations. To learn more about the pluses and minuses of micro inverters, please see Solar Professional’s excellent article on the topic by Ron Burden and Joe Schwartz. You may need to register for a free subscription to view the article, but it’ll be well worth your time.

Lastly, many folks wonder what happens if their neighbors or others plant trees that eventually grow into a shading problem. Many states, such as California and New Mexico, have ‘right to light’ laws that protect home and business owners who install solar panels. In brief, the law can be summed up as follows: if the solar is there first, solar wins, and the tree must be removed or topped, otherwise, if the tree is there first, the tree wins. If it’s your tree, you can take appropriate action, but if it’s your neighbor’s tree, you’ll need to work out a solution or you might be out of luck altogether. In fact, some states go as far as to state that neighbors can’t add a second story or build a home that will shade your solar power system. You’ll need to check your local state law to see how this applies to your particular circumstance.

In summary, make sure you are aware of any shading that may affect your solar system. If your solar installer brings any shading issues to your attention, take heed. They are bringing this to your attention for good reason. Shading will not only affect electrical production, but will also lower your state rebate amount. Likewise, if you are aware of shading issues and your solar installer doesn’t mention them, find yourself another solar installer. If you don’t you are likely to end up with an underperforming system, for the dollars you expended.

Please stay tuned for a bonus in this series, The Ugly Side of Solar Part IV, coming soon. As always, I wish you the best of luck in your solar power endeavors.

Editor's note:  For the full series in downloadable documents, click here.

Governor Schwarzenegger signed two major solar initiatives yesterday, AB 920 and SB 32 which continue California’s drive toward a Million Solar Roofs and create more Incentives to go solar.

"Californians have two more reasons to go solar tonight. Governor Schwarzenegger signed two popular

Porsche Solar Install in Ontario, CA by HelioPower

solar bills designed to give consumers added incentive to invest in a solar roof and help the state achieve its aggressive clean energy goals," said the press statement at Environment California. 

AB 920, authored by Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-Marin) and sponsored by Environment California, radically changes the dynamic between consumer and utility by requiring utility companies to write a check to their customers for surplus solar electricity generated on an annual basis. Previously, under the state’s net metering law, utility companies were allowed to receive surplus solar electricity from their customers for free. AB 920 requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to set a rate at which utility companies shall compensate solar customers whenever a solar system generates more electricity than a home or business uses in a given year. 

“Instead of writing a check to your utility company, you’ll be getting a check back,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate with Environment California which sponsored the legislation. “Changing the dynamic between utility and customer is key to encouraging more people to invest in solar power while also maximizing conservation and energy efficiency.”

AB 920 was supported by numerous groups and people around the state including the Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, NRDC, Planning and Conservation League and many more. It was also embraced by officials such as the San Diego Board of Supervisors.

“As we work towards increasing our energy independence and promoting renewable energy resources, this bill will encourage more people to invest in renewable energy,” said Assembly member Jared Huffman, author of the bill. “This goes a long ways towards California meeting its goal of the Million Solar Roofs initiative under SB1 and clean air standards established under AB 32, as well as ensuring that consumers get a fair return on their investment.”

SB 32, authored by Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino) and sponsored by the California Solar Energy Industry Association, establishes a new feed-in-tariff program for the state. A feed-in-tariff policy requires utility companies to purchase solar electricity at a set rate over a twenty-year period. It has the potential to incentivize massive solar installations on large, unused spaces, such as parking lots and warehouses. This program has been used with much success in places like Germany.

“Watch out. California is about to give Germany a run for the money,” said Del Chiaro. “Every warehouse roof, every parking lot, every unused sunny space can now become a mini-power plant generating pollution free solar electricity all while making money for the property owner.”

“Solar feed in tariffs have given many commercial property owners in other parts of the world strong financial reasons to go solar,” said Steve LoRusso, Vice President, Sales for HelioPower.  “With these bills California property owners now have more reasons than ever to consider a solar power generation system as a cost effective, even now profitable, component of facility development. We look forward to working with more property owners to go solar with these incentives in place.”

HelioPower client, James Price, made local news in Lompoc this weekend.  His ground mount solar power system was on display in the city's first ever, "Central Coast Solar Tour."  The tour, part of the national effort to showcase solar power systems, featured four solar power systems in the Lompoc and Santa Maria

area.

Covering the event, Lompoc News writer Glenn Wallace, posted this article, "Residents look to solar energy for savings" featuring Price's solar experience and savings record.

In August 2008 something funny began happening to Jim Price’s electric meter — it started going backward.

“There it goes — tic, tic, tic,” Price said watching the digital display flash an arrow to the left instead of the right.

Occasionally the display flashes all zeroes, indicating he is using less energy than the backyard solar panel system is actually pumping into the electrical grid, to be used by his neighbors and local businesses. His energy bills — they used to be more than $120 a month — sport more zeros.

Price’s house was just one of five around Lompoc partaking in the National Solar Tour on Saturday.

Jim Riggens, an Air Force retiree and self-described environmentalist, helped bring the tour to Lompoc, and to five other sites in Santa Maria, as part of the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) national education and publicity campaign.

Riggens is trying to get his neighbors to consider solar energy.

“What struck me was why, in a place where you have so much sunshine, how few roofs have solar panels?” Riggens asked.

One of the biggest misconceptions most home owners seem to have is that a solar panel system is too exotic or prohibitively expensive, Riggens said.

“It’s very common for builders. It’s off the shelf. It’s not in a laboratory, and it’s not experimental,” Riggens said.

And as for the money? Riggens just points to Price.

Installing the 4,400-watt, solar panel system in his back yard cost $34,531, Price said. However, after last year’s city and state rebates, and a $2,000 tax credit from the federal government, his final cost became $19,250.

“Yes, there is an investment, but in the long term, he’s flattened down his energy costs,” Riggens said.

On average, Riggens and two of the solar panel installation experts on the tour all said current rebates and tax credits have improved, and the panels now cost less. Within seven to 10 years most systems finish paying for themselves. Since the systems have no moveable parts, they are expected to easily function without major repair for 25 years, meaning quite a few years of profit for people such as Price.

According to Riggens, there is also a property tax exemption for home value increases based on improvements such as a solar panel system.

“So it’s a better return on your investment than redoing that kitchen with granite countertops.”

On top of the money saved, Riggens said there was also the thousands of pounds of carbon emissions home owners could be saving the environment as well.

“There’s two types of people who put in a system,” said Mary Kammer, Lompoc’s utility conservation coordinator. “Those who want to be green, and those who want to beat the system.”

Whichever their motives, so far there are 15 residential solar panel systems installed in the city, with another two in the process.

Lompoc is one of the few cities in California to actually buy electricity back, so Price and anyone else with a bigger system and smaller usage will be receiving a check at the end of the year for generating more than he uses, according to Kammer.

Lompoc Councilwoman Cecilia Martner was on hand at the Price house to learn more about solar power herself. She praised him for “having the vision to move ahead with something like this.”

“The sun is right there, and it’s free,” said Martner.

“Nature provides us with all these things, and all we need to do is make use of them,” Price added.

A home on Moonglow Avenue in Vandenberg Village represents what Riggens called a holistic approach to green design.

The owner, who asked that his name be withheld, said he and his wife had designed the home to include many energy-efficient features, including 100 percent energy generation from his panels, as well as a solar-powered hot water heater and heating system. The couple also had the house plumbed to use shower and sink “greywater” for irrigation.

“We decided to go ‘green’ now because of what might be coming up with energy prices,” said Keith, the Moonglow owner.

Riggens said he plans on having the solar tour become an annual event, and eventually hopes to extend it to include from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo.

For more information about solar power, or to find solar installation firms in the area, visit www.ases.org.

For more information and additional photos of the Price solar install, click here.

In its webinar this week for solar power system buyers in San Diego, 1BOG, One Block Off the Grid, marketing director, Brad Burton, was joined by Scott Gordon, Director of Sales at HelioPower. The webinar gave participants an opportunity to review information and pricing related to the Solar San Diego discount pricing program currently being offered by 1BOG. 

The webinar is available in its entirety by clicking here.

"I very much enjoyed presenting the 1BOG Solar San Diego program with Brad Burton. As Brad mentions during the webinar, at $6.09/dc watt the Solar San Diego campaign pricing is by far the best 1BOG has negotiated to date," said Scott Gordon.  

"This means unprecedented savings when you purchase your solar power system through the program," Gordon continued.   "I liken this to the Costco Car Program. When you buy a car through Costco, a magic book appears from under the salesman’s desk at the auto dealership. Because Costco did all of the negotiating ahead of time, you experience a pleasant non-haggle purchase experience without having to get multiple quotes from multiple dealers. In a similar fashion, the 1BOG campaign saves consumers time and money by simplifying the solar power system purchase process for the public at large. Of course, those hoping to see the greatest savings will act before SDGE’s rebate drops from $1.90 to $1.55 per watt."

By Scott Gordon, Director of Sales, HelioPower

If there were a most commonly asked question contest in the solar business, this question would win hands down: “How long will it take for my solar system to pay for itself?” (Incidentally the second most asked question is: “I have an XXX square foot house, how many solar panels do I need?”).

As you can imagine neither question is particularly easy to answer and both depend on the individual circumstances. If we start with the second question first, the answer is: “The number of panels you require, Mr. Customer, depends upon your 12 month electrical usage history, how your roof is configured, and the type of panels you choose to install.” In other words, without knowing the particulars of a customer’s situation, it’s impossible to answer what on the surface seems like a simple question.

Answering the first question (concerning solar payback) is more complicated because we need to establish a definition of ‘payback’ before we can adequately get to the nuts and bolts answer the customer is seeking.

Then we need to apply customer specific financials to make a final determination. In my experience as both a solar customer and salesman, I believe that there are three ways to think about a solar power system’s payback:

1. ROI – (Return on Investment) – This is what most customers think about. ROI determines how many years of energy savings are required for the solar power system to pay for itself.
2. IRR – (Internal Rate of Return) – Least considered payback methodology, IRR compares a solar ‘investment’ return to other conservative investment returns like interest paid by savings accounts, treasury bills & other bonds, certificates of deposit, etc.
3. Cash Flow – Can financing be obtained that generates positive cash flow for the customer? In other words, will the finance payment be less than the current electric bill? This is truly the Holy Grail.

Using my own solar power system as an example, I’ll address all three of these payback methodologies.

Gordon Residence, solar power in Laguna Beach, CA

1. ROI – My system (installed in February 2007) has an eight year ROI. It will take eight years of energy savings (compounded at 6.7% annually) before my system pays for itself.
2. IRR – That same system provides me with an IRR of 12%. I’m currently paying 4.2% on the money I borrowed to finance the system, so my ‘net return’ is 7.8% (way better than my savings, CDs, or bonds are paying me and certainly better than the 24 month return on my stock portfolio!).

3. Cash Flow – Most importantly, I’ve been cash flow positive from the FIRST MONTH. How? I swapped a $150-200/month electric bill for a $150/month Home Equity payment. Unlike my electric bill, the $150 HELOC payment was entirely tax deductable since it is 100% interest paid toward a qualifying home improvement.
Over the last two years, I’ve paid off a significant portion of the principle (which lowers the monthly payment) and had some luck on the interest rate front. Today, I am $110/month cash flow positive, yet my solar panel system won’t “pay for itself” for another six years!! Funny, because it’s paid me every single month since I installed it in 2007. As you can see, solar payback is truly a matter of perspective.

With the recent removal of the cap on the residential tax credit (Federal), IRR in some utilities is approaching 20%. Warren Buffet became a billionaire by averaging a 20% return over the course of his investing career. Bernie Madoff defrauded investors of billions by promising a 12% return.

A solar power system will provide you with a guaranteed conservative Buffett-like return, without making off with your money in Madoffesque fashion. Your exact return will ultimately be determined by your utility’s rebate level; your appetite for tax credits; and net system price.

If you can achieve positive cash flow with solar, your return from either/and ROI or IRR standpoint become less important. Cash is king, and the more of it you keep every month, the better off you’ll be in the long run. However you decide to calculate the payback on your solar panel system, remember, like any attractive investment, there is a cost to wait. Rebates are ticking down and utility rates keep going up. Every month you delay could cost you hundreds of dollars. Now that’s food for thought.

Residential solar panel installation in Encinitas, CA by HelioPower

Generous state and utility rebates and now the new Federal Incentive Tax Credit for renewable energy can lift up to 50% off the price of a solar power system for your home or business.  It has never been a better time to invest in a solar electricity system, thus greatly reducing or eliminating your electric bill altogether!

A solar electric or panel system sits atop your roof and generates electricity from the sun!  You use very limited amounts of electricity from your utility company. 

New Federal Tax Credits for buying a Solar Power System just increased to 30% with no cap for either residential or commercial systems. When you combine these AMT exempt Federal Tax Credits with State Rebates, you can save nearly 50% on a new system!

In these volatile economic times we continue to be faced with escalating electricity costs. When you invest in a solar power system your budget is insulated from continued electricity rate hikes. For example, starting in January 2009 SCE will increase your rates by 25% to 30% as a result of higher natural gas and transmission costs. This marks the third rate increase in just four years!

Additionally, a solar electric system will increase the value of your home or business. A recent study from the Appraisal Institute demonstrated that the selling price of homes increased by $20.73 for every $1.00 of decrease in annual utility bills. Using this math, a solar electric system often pays for itself the day it’s installed.

Call the HelioPower sales team at 1-87-SOLAR-888 to get a free on site analysis and customized quote for your rooftop solar power system.