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posted by n1 on Thursday October 23 2014, @06:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the being-more-green-for-less-green dept.

The Center for American Progress reports:

If free donuts, gym memberships, or flex pay programs aren't your preferred employee benefit, cheap solar systems could soon be an option. On Wednesday, three major companies -- Cisco Systems, 3M, and Kimberly-Clark -- announced they will now give employees a deeply discounted way of buying or leasing solar panels for their homes.

Called the Solar Community Initiative, the program promises a flat rate that is on average 35 percent lower than the national average and roughly 50 percent less expensive than average electric utility rates. According to the announcement, the offer will start as a benefit to more than 100,000 employees. If one percent choose to power their homes with solar, more than 74,500 metric tons of carbon emissions would be avoided each year.

Offered through Geostellar, a cost comparison site for solar panels, the program will also include options for employees' friends and families in the United States and parts of Canada. The initiative was conceived and facilitated by the World Wildlife Fund.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @06:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @06:43PM (#109295)

    Is that just cost on the panels or whole install?

    Install at this point is one of the bigger parts of the cost.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:17PM (#109314)

      That's what makes the "lease" option seem strange - paying to have a crew uninstall everything when the lease runs out seems counterproductive.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:51PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:51PM (#109334)

        Unlike the cable company, which may not bother to physically disconnect you, there is significant liability in leaving a heavy power-producing piece of equipment you own on someone else's roof.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:44PM (#109376)

        As long as the house is occupied, it needs electricity. They've probably got some terms in the lease that say that you have to buy electricity from them, the owners of the panels, before you buy any from the electric company, and because of the cost structure the electricity from the panels will always be cheaper than the electricity from the electric company.

        So it isn't really a lease as we know them and there is basically zero risk of default short of foreclosure. It is standard in the industry that when the lease actually expires in 20 years or whatever the ownership of the system passes to the owner of the house. So kind of rent-to-own.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by bziman on Friday October 24 2014, @02:21AM

        by bziman (3577) on Friday October 24 2014, @02:21AM (#109448)

        That's what makes the "lease" option seem strange - paying to have a crew uninstall everything when the lease runs out seems counterproductive.

        So that's what I thought six-ish years ago, when I spent over $30k on solar panels for the roof of my house in Virginia. I'm really happy with that investment, and I have no complaints.

        But things have changed, and on my house in Colorado, since last year, I'm leasing solar panels. I paid nothing at all for them up front, and I just pay the company a per-kWh fee, just like I did the power company - only it's about 30% cheaper than the local coal power, and there's no taxes, fees, or "connection" charges.

        As for coming and collecting the panels at the end of the lease, the lease is for twenty years, and the useful service life of the panels is only about 25 years - and after 20 years, you can expect them to be generating only about 70-80% of their output when new. The thing is, each year, the price falls, the panels themselves become more efficient, and so after twenty years, you'll be ready to replace your panels anyway.

        Of course, I'm likely to buy out the lease long before that, so whoever I sell the house to doesn't have to worry about it - they just get the panels. In the meantime, I get cheap energy, no up front payment, and they take care of all maintenance.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:01PM (#109305)

    And what about the rest of the world having access to cheap solar technology?
    So if your not a slave, you gotta pay?
    Seems a little twisted.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 23 2014, @07:50PM (#109332)

      "Unless its perfect in all ways its not worth doing."