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If anyone's wondering, SC's costs are above market average virtually everywhere, and they do not differentiate costs based on size (which is an immediate red fl

If anyone's wondering, SC's costs are above market average virtually everywhere, and they do not differentiate costs based on size (which is an immediate red flag for anyone concerned about costs, because it means they're averaging out fixed costs of small projects on larger projects instead of giving individual customers an individual price that's based on the individual costs + profit.) They're not a breakthrough solar company, there's very little technically that they actually do that's better than anyone else. They're a breakthrough business company in the solar industry by creating a scaleable organisation that cleverly securitises decentralised utilities, basically, that's different from Tesla or SpaceX where there's actual breakthrough engineering going on. It's done very well, it's hugely important and I'm glad they're a player in the space, but in terms of actual solar tech there's nothing novel going on here and they're usually not the best deal you can find (although it really depends on a lot of factors. Long-term non-bankruptcy is a big deal in a relatively young industry with many companies going bankrupt while dealing with products with a 20-year lifetime, and SC probably has some of the best odds of being around that long. That alone can be worth a premium to some people, at least in the solar lease business). Finally can we stop calling it Elon Musk's SolarCity, I like the guy as much as anyone and obviously he's a part of SC, but everyone knows that Lyndon Rive spends 100x as much of his time on this than Elon Musk and is the actual CEO running the place. The name Elon Musk isn't like Donald Trump, you don't need to headline it every time there's an association that's relatively minor, that's just clickbait, at least I don't think journalists should do that. He's on the board, he's not running the thing and he helped start it almost a decade ago.

bhauer 11y ago
SolarCity's pricing structure was a large deciding factor for me. I ended up using an independent installer to equip my small Los Angeles-area home with solar. I bought the panels and SolarCity's buy option was considerably more expensive. To your point about Elon Musk, as a fan of Tesla and SpaceX, I can tell you that at least the customer experience gulf between Tesla and SolarCity is notable. SolarCity is the kind of place where you are teased with $100 gift cards and other silly promotions. As a potential customer, you are juggled among a team of sales people who very aggressively chase the sale. Talking about things like a buy option is a bit "off script" for SolarCity and the answers to technical and contractual questions are vague. All that said, I too like that they are in the market, providing a mainstream option that appeals to a wide audience.
Brakenshire 11y ago
> They're not a breakthrough solar company, there's very little technically that they actually do that's better than anyone else It's worth saying that this concept of a breakthrough discovery in solar has been pursued and hyped for years, including god knows how many articles in mainstream newspapers and magazines, and yet almost all of the progress which has happened, has been through the economics of increased scale, or with progressive optimizations made by anonymous industrial engineers in China (albeit with the groundwork laid by worldwide materials research). Also, as far as I'm aware this is the first time SolarCity has been directly involved in manufacturing panels. As you say, they are more about business than technology, but it is interesting to have an installation company going back into the manufacturing process and putting its priorities at the centre. The focus on maximizing efficiency rather than cost per watt makes a lot more sense to an installer than a pure manufacturer - in terms of the large fixed labour costs of putting up scaffolding, fitting a certain number of panels, wiring etc.

bhauer 11y ago

SolarCity's pricing structure was a large deciding factor for me. I ended up using an independent installer to equip my small Los Angeles-area home with solar. I bought the panels and SolarCity's buy option was considerably more expensive. To your point about Elon Musk, as a fan of Tesla and SpaceX, I can tell you that at least the customer experience gulf between Tesla and SolarCity is notable. SolarCity is the kind of place where you are teased with $100 gift cards and other silly promotions. As a potential customer, you are juggled among a team of sales people who very aggressively chase the sale. Talking about things like a buy option is a bit "off script" for SolarCity and the answers to technical and contractual questions are vague. All that said, I too like that they are in the market, providing a mainstream option that appeals to a wide audience.

Brakenshire 11y ago

> They're not a breakthrough solar company, there's very little technically that they actually do that's better than anyone else It's worth saying that this concept of a breakthrough discovery in solar has been pursued and hyped for years, including god knows how many articles in mainstream newspapers and magazines, and yet almost all of the progress which has happened, has been through the economics of increased scale, or with progressive optimizations made by anonymous industrial engineers in China (albeit with the groundwork laid by worldwide materials research). Also, as far as I'm aware this is the first time SolarCity has been directly involved in manufacturing panels. As you say, they are more about business than technology, but it is interesting to have an installation company going back into the manufacturing process and putting its priorities at the centre. The focus on maximizing efficiency rather than cost per watt makes a lot more sense to an installer than a pure manufacturer - in terms of the large fixed labour costs of putting up scaffolding, fitting a certain number of panels, wiring etc.