Reading the article, the problem is that they used one of those companies with annoying business models to finance the solar panels somehow and you get some, bu

Reading the article, the problem is that they used one of those companies with annoying business models to finance the solar panels somehow and you get some, but not all, of the benefits. People in the community I live in are pushing those models pretty hard. Running the numbers, if you are privileged enough to have the money to just buy the damn panels and get them installed outright, you're way, way better off. I don't know if there's still good tax credits, but when I looked, they got you a good chunk of change right there. After that, solar panels pay for themselves in a pretty short amount of time if your electricity usage is high enough to take full advantage of them (eg: if you have a central hvac system or something), or have someone who will buy the surplus from you. In my building, our power usage is way higher than we can get even if we covered the entire roof with panels, so it's pretty easy: put panels, reduce electricity cost, make up the money in a couple of years, don't deal with any third party aside for the installation.