Solar: 2./ Solar power home rental units

Here's a couple of solar concepts that are new to me and which I feel might interest readers of The Fueling Station: 'concentrated solar power,' and solar power rentals. I'd be interested to get your feedback as both seem to me to have great potential.

2./ Solar power rentals: A Wilmington Delware-based company, Citizenrē REnU , is offering a unique option for domestic solar power.
The company will come to your home and install free of charge a solar power system which you the  rent, according to its website. The company owns and operates the package, while at the same time guaranteeing that your electricity bill will not be greater than the amount you were paying to receive power from the grid.

"You don’t have to worry about maintaining the equipment or any of the other concerns that come with making an investment into solar power. All you are required to do is pay for the electricity generated from these panels, at a fixed rate that is at or below your current electricity price, for up to twenty-five years," the website says.

As I understand it the company makes money both by charging the home owner for energy consumed as well as providing surplus energy to the grid.

"Our solar engineer will go through your past energy bills. Then, if you are interested, they will walk through your house and show you how to save energy.  Taking all this into consideration, they will calculate how much energy your personal solar unit will need to produce in order to supply energy for all of your needs. They will then design the system to supply that energy. You simply pay the rate per kilowatt hour that is on your contract for all the clean, renewable energy that your system produces."

The company has a sophisticated website but it does not provide much professional background about its staff.

Click here to visit Citizenrē REnU website. Check the energy savings calculator to work out how much you might save using this system.

Click here for the company's 'Frequently Asked Questions' webpage.

- David Adams

Comments

[Frank]

Citizenre is providing an easy way for the solar market to move beyond the early adopters and begin to move into the mainstream.

SunEdison and 3 Phases Energy are two other companies that have a similar business model.

Florida could sure use an aggresive program to develop distributed photovoltaic electricity generation along the lines of California's.

[David Adams]

Frank, many thanks for the additonal info you provided. It's god to hear that this is a workable business model. Are any of these available in our area?

david

[Frank]

If I'm not mistaken SunEdison and 3 Phases are primarily targeting large commercial customers in states that have incentives.

They make their models work by combining the value of the incentives, 30% federal tax credit, and the value of the RECs(Renewable Energy Credits). The customer gets clean electricity that is priced at an agreed upon rate, usually cheaper than the local utility, over time without the large upfront cost that is associated with PV.

[James]

CitizenRe is the only program I know of for homeowners to actually save any money. 3 Phases Energy, unlike the CitizenRe program, does not actually save homeowners money. They will, however, let you mail them your hard-earned cash to assuage your "environmental guilt".

Florida does have a very aggressive program that was recently passed that pays a huge rebate for systems 2 kW or larger.

[John Dalhaus]

I hope the CitizenRE program delivers what it promises. Anything that reduces the amount of CO2 we put into our atmosphere is worthwhile. I work with solar PV, and write about my experiences on my blog:

http://solarjohn.blogspot.com

John

[Charles Whalen]

This would not be a viable proposition for this company, Citizen REnU, here in most of Florida, at least in FPL’s territory, because FPL has used its considerable influence in Tallahassee to prevent net-metering from being adopted in Florida. FPL uses dual-metering where they would pay this company that owns the PV panels on your roof what FPL says is its wholesale cost of electricity, $.03/kWh, for all the electricity that the PV panels on your roof put into the grid during the day, but then FPL turns around and charges their retail rate, currently $.12/kWh, for all the electricity you draw from the grid in the evening and at night. So this is a losing proposition for this company, Citizen REnU, just as it is for any homeowner who owns his own PV panels on his roof. ////// On the other hand, however, this PV rental deal would solve the hurricane problem for homeowners such as myself who are looking at doing PV but are concerned about the large uninsurable risk of total loss of the panels in a hurricane. Despite never having made a single claim, my homeowners insurance company has just notified me that they are dropping me because they no longer want to do business in this state. It’s becoming harder and harder for homeowners in South Florida to get *any* insurance at all, much less to be able to insure a $100k PV installation on the roof, which no insurance company would want to do. … Maybe Lloyd’s of London at some astronomical rate. This makes PV a very difficult proposition for the South Florida homeowner. I would like to do a very large installation, around 18kW worth of PV panels, which would cost me somewhere around $80k just in the PV panels alone, before applicable state and federal rebates. But I am loath to take on that kind of hurricane risk myself, having to go bare naked on it and just wing it. But this PV rental deal would solve that problem for the homeowner because the company that owns the panels on your roof, Citizen REnU, would be the one taking all the risk. If your PV panels are blown off or damaged in a hurricane and are no longer producing electricity, then that’s their loss and you, the homeowner, stop making monthly payments to them.

[Solar Power]

Thank you very much for given this great article!

[Tino]

"this PV rental deal would solve that [hurricane risk] problem for the homeowner because the company that owns the panels on your roof, Citizen REnU, would be the one taking all the risk."

Wow. Your reading comprehension is something to behold. For more literate types, here is their risk policy, spelled out plainly on the website:

"Provider does not insure the REnU during the period it is rented to the Customer. Customers may elect to obtain, at their own expense, insurance covering the REnU during the term of the rental. Exception is for damage protection insurance that Provider may offer at an extra charge. Provider may also offer solar irradiance insurance.

5.2. Risk of Loss, Damage, or Theft

Customer will bear responsibility for all failures, damage to or loss of components whether due to theft or other source of loss..."

YOU eat the risk. The contract also spells out that when the system gets damaged, YOU pay them upfront for the cost of repair/replacement. There is no risk-free lunch.