A friend of mine who introduced me to the solar business some time ago said Ed, you want to drive down the cost of the solar system to the lowest you can get, to maximize the amount of money you can make over the life of your contract.
I didn't really appreciate this simple, straightforward logic until I began pricing systems and trying to get the numbers and financing in place for my own home system.
I found that the banks and leasing companies were not interested in financing solar systems for longer than 5 years. While I could get the numbers to work using a 10 or 20 year financing plan, 5 years was just too short to be affordable. Sure I could prove on paper that I could make money, but if no one would lend me the money, then it was just smoke in the wind. I realized that I had been plugging into the current Solar System business model, and that was the issue. At $7 - $12 /watt, you needed a 7 - 10 year payback time-frame, and this used up a pile of the revenue that the system generated.
I realized that I needed go back to the wise words of my friend, and redesign the business model to fit my needs. If I could make it work for me then it would work for others.
Over the next few days, I will share with you, through this blog, how I have brought solar panels down to $2.25/watt and installed systems to $4.376/watt.
You can pay more...
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