Home | Environment
In 1931, Thomas Edison had a conversation with U.S. manufacturing giants. Edison said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a generator of electricity! I hope we don’t have to wait until fossil fuels run out before we tackle that.” We have waited 76 years, but a renewable energy start up has finally produced a solar solution. The sun supplies enough energy to earth in one hour to supply all of our electricity needs for an entire year. But currently solar electricity supplies less than ˝ of 1% of our residential energy demands. Why? Previously, solar energy has been too costly and too complex. To rethink solar generated electricity, people had to save money for years. The average resident pays $40,000 to convert their home to solar power; plus resident are responsible for the installation, maintaining the equipment, managing permits. Who has the skills (or the money) for this? A fresh company has a creative idea to restrict all of the traditional barriers to solar energy. This solar energy equipment provider offers: No solar equipment purchase. No installation cost. No maintenance of the solar energy system. No permit administration. No operational troubles. No rate increases. No doubt! When we first heard about this solar service, we were so interested that we investigated this solar energy equipment provider. It seemed almost like there was a catch somehow. Like most new ideas, their strategy is so non-complicated it makes you wonder why no one thought of it before. You simply pay this green company the same cost per kilowatt for electricity that you used to auto pay your energy company, but it gets even better. This green company will freeze that your cost per kilowatt for up to 25 years. With constantly rising electricity rates, this gives consumers comfort and can equate to significant savings. This solar rental company even have a solar energy service on their corporate website that shows how much you may recoup over 1, 5, and 25 yrs. I saved over $18,000 and by using solar electricity; it is the equivalent of taking 27 trucks off the road or planting 400 trees. Nice! Previously, “switching to renewable energy” implied expensive solar equipment. With this new idea, you get to feel empowered about helping the planet but most “renewable energy” products are more expensive than their “dirty” counterparts. this solar rental company, going green can actually costs less money. Getting a residential solar energy system is all made possible by grid connection laws that require the power companies to allow renewable energy to flow into the grid and then enable the consumer to take that same amount of energy off of the grid at no cost to the customer. Basically, the grid becomes a huge battery. The energy meter spins backwards during the day when the sun is producing power and forwards at night when the customer draws that electricity back off the grid. These net metering laws were drafted because residential electricity production was the number one cause of pollution in the US last year. There are still nine states that have not started promoting renewable energy sources. ***** To research more about Residential Solar Energy you may visit the website http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm Consumers may be still a little unsure about this new concept. The author asked some common questions. Detailed Customer Questions: Q. How can this green company afford to install this complete home solar energy system with no investment by the homeowner? A. Because the company handles everything; from the solar grade silicon to the final installation, they create savings at each stage of the production. Plus they are building the largest manufacturing plant for solar energy in the world. When you combine their vertical integration with our economies of scale, they are able to make the residential solar energy systems at half the cost of the competitors. Q. This sounds like this green company required a large amount of capitol to to get rolling? A. $650 million. Q. When does the homeowner pay the security deposit for the solar rental? A. They do not pay the security deposit until after the solar engineer comes to the site and designs the solar energy system. They will show you exactly what the solar energy system will look like and only after the customer agrees to the design does the customer pay the deposit. The deposit is 100% refundable at the end of the rental term. Q. How long of a contract does the homeowner have to sign? A. One year, five years, or twenty-five years. Over 80% of the residential solar energy customers sign the 25 year rental agreement because that locks in the electricity rate for the entire term of the agreement. If the customer signs a shorter contract, the rate is recalculated according to current electricity rates at the end of the term. Q. What happens if the homeowner signs a 25 year agreement and they want to sell their house in 10 years? A. The homeowner has three selections. First, they can ask the company to move the system to their new house. The company will do this one time for free. Second, the homeowner can transfer the solar rental agreement to the new owner. This can potentially add value to the existing house because if electricity rates keep increasing and they are 40% higher in 10 years, then the buyer would get a 40% decrease on their energy bill because of the existing solar rental agreement. The final option is that the customer can contact the company, tell them that they want to end the rental agreement. The company will remove the solar unit. With this third option, the customer will forfeit their security deposit. Q. So is the customer’s security deposit the most they have at risk? Is that the only risk? A. Obviously if the customer does not pay their bill there will be late charges or if one of our franchisees comes out to their house to remove the solar system and they refuse to allow them access, the company will have to take legal steps to recover their solar unit. Q. Okay. A customer wants a residential solar energy system on their house. How does it work? What is the process? A. The homeowner reserves their system online and one of the Solar Energy Consultants will help them each step of the way. There are some simple questions to answer about the amount of shade, the direction of the roof line, the electricity consumption, etc. After the customer signs the rental agreement, a solar engineer will come to the location to design the residential solar energy system. This last step will not happen until the company has the solar panels ready to install. Q. What if the homeowner does not like the solar system design? Are they still obligated to the agreement? A. No. They can back out of the contract with no penalty. As mentioned, the customer doesn’t submit the deposit until after you approve the residential solar energy system design. To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm. Q. Okay. The customer likes the design. They want the solar energy system. What's next? A. The installation usually takes about a day. The permit process can take as much as 90 days depending on how cooperative the local utility is, but they company handles every step of the process and the customer doesn’t pay anything until the residential solar energy unit is producing renewable, clean solar energy for their home. Q. What exactly does the homeowner pay? How is solar rental fee calculated? A. The customer pays a rental for the amount of solar generated electricity that their solar system produces. The customer is generating their own electricity from the sun. The solar engineer will go through the resident’s past electricity bills. If the customer is interested, the solar engineer will walk through the house and show how to save electricity. Taking all this into consideration, solar engineer will calculate how much energy the homeowner’s personal residential solar energy unit will need to generate in order to supply energy for all of the homeowner’s needs. They will then design the residential solar energy system to supply that electricity. The customer simply pays the rate per kilowatt hour that is on the rental contract for all the clean, renewable solar electricity that the residential solar energy equipment produces. Q. Does the company have any hidden expenses or up-keep expenses? A. Nothing extra. The company has no utility connection fees or any of those "hidden" charges that other companies like to tack on. The government is not trying to tax the sun’s energy - yet. Q. So, will the homeowner have two invoices; one from the solar rental company and one from the regular utility company? A. Yes. The customer will pay the company a rental fee for the solar equipment that will generate the energy and the homeowner will pay the utility company the same connection fees that they pay now, plus the customer will pay the utility company for any excess energy the customer uses that exceeds the agreement. Q. What does that mean; exceeds the agreement? A. At the end of the year, the customer used more energy than what was contracted for and the residential solar energy system produced for them, then the customer would need to pay the utility company for the excess electricity that was used and not generated by the solar system. Q. And what rate would the customer pay for that electricity? A. The customer would pay the utility company’s current rates. Sorry, this green company cannot do anything about the utility company’s rates. But look at it this way, the customer will be using a lot less of that dirty electricity and the solar equipment the customer rents will always self-produce the homeowner’s electricity at the same guaranteed low rate. No surprises. If a customer reads about rising electricity costs, they can smile knowing that their solar energy costs are will remain the same for the length of your agreement. To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm. Q. In the first year, the homeowner is just paying the same fee that they were paying before, correct? A. Often fee is actually less. The company bases the equipment costs on the yearly average for the rate charged by their utility provider. So, the company bases their rental fees on the prior year averaged charged by the utility. Since electricity rates tend to go up each year, many customer will save money on their first bill. This will only increase as the years pass. The company provides a service on their website that will tell specifically what they will save with their particular utility and their monthly usage. Many customers save over $10,000 just by upgrading to solar. See http://www.Solargies.com/Solar_Savings.htm for more details. The company’s idea is to help people decide to self-produce energy and stop being part of the problem. Q. What would a customer’s monthly bill look like? A. Let's say the customer agreed to the company installing a system to self-produce 12,000 kilowatt hours of energy for the year. The customer’s contract rate is 10 cents a kilowatt hour. The total bill for the year would be $1,200 for the rental of the solar unit. With most electricity companies, the homeowner has some months that are higher and some lower. It is hard to understand your expenses. This green company has a system called "Even Pay" where the customer simply pays a given dollar amount each a month every month. Q. What happens if the customer contracts for a certain amount of kilowatt hours and then their kids go off to school? A. The residential solar energy system is remotely monitored automatically every day. If the solar engineer notices a consumption drop, they will contact the customer to see if this is a permanent situation or just a short-term fluctuation. If this will be a permanent decrease in energy usage, the solar technician will come out and remove the proper number of panels and readjust the rental agreement. Q. And how much will up keep cost me? A. Nothing. This green company makes solar approachable. Q. What happens if something goes wrong? A. The company has a complete system support guarantee. If the residential solar energy unit ever stops working, it will be fixed for free. The customer has no additional costs until the solar power system is working again. This makes the company motivated to get it operating fast. Q. What if my neighbor drops a tree on one of the solar panels? A. It is just like renting an appliance. The customer is responsible for returning the residential solar energy system in working order. The company recommends that customers contact their insurance provider to check that the solar equipment is covered under their policy. To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm. Q. Would the customer save money in the long run if they just bought a residential solar energy system? A. Actually, no. Renting solar equipment can save a significant amount of money, and it protects the homeowner from the large initial expense. If the customer buys solar panels and invest $40,000, they are tied into that technology for many years. If something great enters the market, the homeowner can't switch because their $40,000 would be wasted. If the customer breaks their agreement with the solar rental company, they will give up their security deposit, usually $500. The customer can simply contact the company and indicate that they want to cancel the agreement. The customer would lose the security deposit. But that is a lot better than losing a lot of money. Q. Is the residential solar energy manufacturing plant completed yet? A. Not yet. The first solar systems will be ready to install in the middle of 2008. Q. So why would a customer sign up now? A. First – the customer lock in the flat rate as soon as they sign up. With the way electricity rates are increasing, this could save the homeowner a lot of money. Second – the customer reserves their installation position. This means they can get their residential solar energy system sooner once the manufacturing plant is producing. Third - it also helps the company show the government how many homeowners will upgrade to solar if an offer that makes sense on every level is presented. Q. What happens if the customers signs the contract and the manufacturing plant is never finished? A. The rental agreement would be void and canceled. This green company understands that this is a timely concept. The energy companies have been saying for years that solar energy has no appeal. They have personal reasons in making that claim. This company is proving them wrong. They have a solar vision. The consequences are too big if we don’t take action. The only way that change is going to happen is if we create a better vision. For that vision to be sustainable, it needs to make monetary sense for all people involved. Electricity production is the biggest source of pollution in the United States. This green company is not asking anyone to give up anything. In fact, homeowners can save a a lot of money by upgrading their homes to solar energy. When was the last time a citizen could save money and do the right thing? ***** TO LEARN MORE ABOUT RESIDENTIAL SOLAR ENERGY **** You can visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm.
Article Source: http://www.SponsorDirectory.com/Free-Content
Daniel Stouffer is Independent Ecopreneur and advocate of solar energy. At Solargies (Solar Energies), Daniel’s objective is to spread the use of clean solar energy as simply and as rapidly as possible. He is an Ecopreneur investing time and energies educating homeowners about renewable energy, most specifically, solar generated (PV) electricity. Learn more about Daniel at www.Solargies.com.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
