For a decade, it was a better deal to own, not lease, rooftop solar panels. The end of solar tax credits for homeowners may flip that on its head. New subscription offerings are making solar more like subscribing to a cellular or streaming service: Pay monthly to reap the benefits, and cancel when it no longer suits you. If you don’t like the deal you’re getting, the company will remove the panels free of charge.
The solar industry has long used the word “subscription” to describe something rather different: long-term, often 25-year leases or power purchase agreements, known as PPAs, that could be canceled only by paying fees or penalties. But a new model from an upstart company called Terra Energy is shaking things up in Florida, Texas and soon California. After subscribing for three years, customers can cancel and have the panels removed from their roof free of charge. If they keep them, they lock in a low, predictable electricity rate relative to their local utility, like any other leasing model. When I heard of this deal, I was intrigued but dubious. Bankrupt companies litter the solar industry. An estimated 50 percent of residential solar systems in the U.S. are “orphaned,” installed by companies that no longer exist, said Sam Thompson of the solar and home electrification marketplace EnergySage. Although most solar systems deliver on their promises to homeowners, shady sales practices and bankruptcies have plagued the market. But when I called industry analysts and some of Terra Energy’s customers, they told me this subscription model might just be the future.
Here’s why the loss of federal tax credits means that leasing now dominates new home solar sales, and why subscribing to the sun can now be a better bet than owning those rooftop panels. What’s your preferred way to go solar? Write me climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.
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