Growth in the residential solar market continues apace. In the United States, residential solar PV installations last quarter were up 11 percent over the previous quarter: The figure illustrates this impressive growth rate (in dark blue). However, this is growth on a very small base. By my crude calculations, less than half a percent of … Continue reading »
solar electricity
Why aren’t we talking about net energy metering for LEDs?
The fights over net energy metering have gotten loud and heated. For those of you who have missed the drama, here, in a nutshell, is what “net metering” means. Say I install enough solar panels on my roof to provide about half of my electricity over the course of a year. On a sunny afternoon, … Continue reading »
Rate-design wars are the sound of utilities taking residential PV seriously
Imagine walking into your supermarket with a bag of zucchini from your garden and saying that you’d like to trade them straight up for an equal quantity of zucchini next month. The store manager would explain that they aren’t in the business of making wholesale purchases at such small scale, and that when they do … Continue reading »
Marketing solar, part two
Several weeks ago I blogged about a solar quote my family received. The quote suggested that we could spend $12,400 to save $39,500 on our future electricity bills. My post raised two issues about the quote, including that the savings summed over the next 25 years were not discounted and that the company was projecting … Continue reading »
Marketing solar: Bring in Elizabeth Warren?
Last month, my husband opened the door to a solicitor from a solar company and eventually agreed to let the polite young gentleman on our porch order a quote for our family to go solar. The three-page form that the company sent had several very misleading figures. I was appalled. Let me be clear – … Continue reading »