Not going to try very hard because I really don't care to read the rich man's war paper anymore.
"Leased solar panels can cloud the forecast for selling a house" by Will Wade | Bloomberg News July 01, 2014
NEW YORK — Leasing is driving a boom in solar sales because most require no money upfront for systems that cost thousands of dollars. That’s made solar affordable for more people, helping spur a 38 percent jump in US residential installations in the past year. Since the business model has gained currency only in the past two years, the details embedded in the fine print of the deals are only starting to emerge.
‘‘Homeowners don’t understand what they’re signing when they get into this,’’ said Sandy Adomatis, a home appraiser in Punta Gorda, Fla., who created the industry’s standard tool for valuing the systems. ‘‘You’ve got another layer to add on top of finding a buyer for the house. It’s not a plus.’’
For people who own rooftop power systems, solar adds value to the home — about $25,000 for the average installation in California, according to a study in December by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, funded by the US Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative.
Leased systems are another story because they’re considered personal property rather than part of a house.
For many potential buyers, a solar lease is a liability, and it may drive some people away, said Adomatis, who wrote the Residential Green Valuation Tool, a guide offered by the Appraisal Institute, a trade group.
Solar leases were introduced in 2008 and started to take off in about 2012. That means most of the systems in place remain in the hands of the original customer, suggesting that the difficulties in selling these properties are just beginning.
‘‘Some buyers just won’t be on board’’ with assuming a solar lease, said Nick Culver, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in New York. ‘‘Even if you save money every month, you limit yourself to a certain subset of buyers.’’
SolarCity Corp., the solar installer backed by billionaire Elon Musk with 110,000 lease customers, has transferred ownership of about 1,500 contracts to date and says the new owners typically will continue to enjoy lower power costs. It created an eight-person team that’s handling about 150 transfers a month because of growing demand for the service.
‘‘They’re essentially moving into a home with a lower cost of ownership, a lower cost of energy,’’ so a solar lease shouldn’t make it harder to sell a house, said Jonathan Bass, a spokesman for SolarCity in San Mateo, Calif. ‘‘It becomes a selling point instead of a point of misunderstanding.’’
I think that one phrase encompa$$es the way I feel about the new$paper these days, and I no longer like the product.
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Related: Blinded by This Holocaust
And despite all the good work we are hooked into oil and gas more than ever after billions and trillions wasted.
