The company is making a big push in Los Angeles, where it recently reached an agreement with the city that allows LADWP customers to participate in such lease arrangements. Homeowners with an electric bill as low as $100 or even less can still save money by going solar, said SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass.
The company has a nifty calculator on its website where you can plug in the numbers.
Power to the people
In the last few years, companies, including SolarCity, have courted business by offering volume discounts to groups of homeowners who agree to adopt the technology at the same time.
The so-called community solar movement is gaining traction nationwide, thanks in part to a Bay Area company called One Block Off the Grid, or 1BOG for short. Its business is organizing homeowners into groups of 100 or more and using that bargaining clout to get the best deals from solar installers.
Here's how it works: If you're interested in solar, just go to the website and sign up. 1BOG is running campaigns in metropolitan Los Angeles (including Orange County and parts of the Inland Empire), the Bay Area, San Diego, Sacramento and Sonoma County.
There's no cost or obligation. But the more homeowners 1BOG can get to take the plunge, the more leverage they have with installers, who compete to win the contract. 1BOG makes its money by charging the winning bidder a fee.
1BOG offers educational seminars, provides a leasing option and does all the negotiating with solar companies, saving homeowners a lot of hassle.
Retirees Dorothy and Walter Harris of Ladera Heights were interested in purchasing panels but were dismayed by the steep learning curve. After tuning in to a 1BOG Web seminar, the couple knew they had found their company.
"They presented things clearly . . . and made the whole process easy," Dorothy Harris said.
The savings can be enormous. Los Angeles 1BOG members can now get solar for $6.05 a watt installed. That would reduce the net cost of that 5-kilowatt system in Southern California Edison territory mentioned above by an additional $5,075.
The drawback is that you don't get to pick what brand of panel goes on your roof or the company that does the installing. You also might have to wait several months to get your system, depending on how many people are ahead of you in line.
Put it on my tax bill
State legislation known as AB 811 approved last year grants most California cities and counties the ability to offer low-interest solar loans to residents, who then repay those loans through assessments that appear on their property tax bills.
The idea is to make solar more affordable by allowing California residents to spread their payments over 20 years. If the house is sold, the annual assessments become the responsibility of the new owner. That's appealing to homeowners who aren't sure how long they'll stay put.
So far, Berkeley, Palm Desert and Sonoma County have set up programs. San Diego is planning to launch one this fall. A number of cities are in the exploratory phase.
The cost to homeowners and businesses depends on the interest rate provided by the municipality. Palm Desert, for example, offers a 7% fixed rate. So financing a $30,000 system over 20 years would raise a homeowner's property tax bill by a little more than $3,000 a year.
Want your city to participate? Tell your mayor or council representative you want an AB 811 program in your town.
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marla.dickerson@latimes.com
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Solar resources
- Good primer on the California Solar Initiative:
www.gosolarcalifornia.org
- Find out what installers are charging statewide:
www.californiasolarstatistics.ca.gov/application/search
- Pacific Gas & Electric: www.pge.com/csi
- Southern California Edison: www.sce.com/residential/rebates-savings/csi/csi-faq.htm
- Administrator for San Diego Gas & Electric: energycenter.org/index.php/incentive-programs/california-solar-initia tive
- More useful solar links: energycenter.org/index.php/incentive-programs/california-
solar-initiative/csi-links
Source: Times research
