But to Weissman, it was an unexpected letdown. It’s the kind of detail your average solar customer wouldn’t notice or maybe care about. Sounds like a deal.īut while reading the contract, Weissman discovered the fine print that helps make that deal possible: SolarCity would also retain ownership of his system’s renewable energy credits. The company would own the equipment, and he’d buy the power it produces for less than he had been paying his electric utility. For zero down, leading residential provider SolarCity would install panels on his roof. It seemed like an environmental no-brainer. And if those things don't happen, we'll probably have to take legal action at some point.Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Ī couple of years ago, Steven Weissman, an energy lawyer at the University of California-Berkeley, started to shop around for solar panels for his house. Hopefully, production improves and GAF makes the warranty right. If production remains under 85% of expected, the bait and switch on the warranty will cost us $5,000 over the length of the warranty (based on estimated energy costs provided by GAF). That's according to the tracking provided by the GAF energy website we haven't gotten a bill from the electric company since turning it on. But so far we're only getting about 66% of what the proposal estimated for this time of year. If the production surpasses the numbers we were quoted, the warranty wouldn't matter. The GM of the roofing company we worked with says our case is working it's way through the GAF legal department and he thinks they'll eventually make it right by giving us the warranty we thought we were getting when we signed the contract. GAF acknowledges that the warranty information was left out, but their customer service folks offered no remedy. We wouldn't have traded another 15% of the already lower production for that guarantee. Traditional panels produce more power per square foot, but we were willing to trade a little production for the guarantee. That page said that the "solar power generation warranty" covers only 85% of the "solar power output warranty." We were in no way informed that only 85% of output is warranted and wouldn't have signed the contract if we'd known that. However, we found out after installation that a crucial page had been left out of the proposal we were provided before signing the contract. Installation was smooth, both with the roofing company and the GAF engineers who came after to connect everything. I actually wanted to post about our experience as a cautionary tale, but I don't use reddit much and lack the necessary "karma" to create threads. See - įind the latest Help Wanted feature post HERE which includes links to several industry job listing sites Searchable by country, state, and technology. * Clean Energy Training Directory - Training providers, workshops, undergraduate degree programs, graduate programs, and more. It is designed for workforce professionals, educators, policymakers and job seekers. * The Solar Career Mapping Tool - This is an interactive Solar Career Map offered by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). NREL SAM - System Advisor Model application NREL - National Renewable Energy Laboratory Listing of Solar Conferences and Events at Renewable Energy World and SEIA SolarEventsĭatabase of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency Tip for help requests - because of variances in things like regulations, prices, and amounts of solar radiation, it is useful to provide general location info such as country and state when asking for help/info regarding your solar project. What changes when solar PV is combined with batteries? What is the global impact of solar PV on the overall energy industry? When will solar become affordable for all? Shine on you brilliant solar enthusiasts!īe sure to check out our wiki for more solar information and resources. Steady improvements in materials, design and labor have dramatically lowered costs, module efficiencies have improved gradually as well - both serving to make the technology much more competitive against fossil fuels in recent years. The solar module and the systems it drives - whether small residential installations or large, utility-scale power plants - is one of the great inventions of the modern age. This subreddit is for solar photovoltaic (PV) professionals, owners, and enthusiasts. Before submitting posts in this subreddit, read the current subreddit rules, suggestions, and helpful links post which is stickied to the top of the post list
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