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> I'd assume sunnier places it approaches close to 100% Weirdly, no. I live in an extraordinarily sunny area and solar panels are still slow to roll out in 202

> I'd assume sunnier places it approaches close to 100% Weirdly, no. I live in an extraordinarily sunny area and solar panels are still slow to roll out in 2024. I've never convinced my parents to get panels on their house, and almost nobody in their neighborhood has them. (I live in an apartment and I don't think I know of a single apartment building in my city that has panels.) Something is definitely wrong, but I'm not sure what. I'm pretty sure my city even has big rebates for solar installation.

pavel_lishin 2y ago
I do know that some companies lease them, which is a bad financial decision for a homeowner - not only do you not own them, which is bad, but the contract stays with the house, which may make it harder to sell. After all, why would I buy a house that's somehow weirdly indebted to some fly-by-might solar installation company I've never heard of ?
- digging 2y ago
  Wow, yeah. I suppose I can sort of see the motivation, insofar as solar panels have a finite lifespan, the homeowner might think it's better to not be on the hook for handling end-of-life. But in reality, as you say, I would not want to lease them. I would prefer to purchase them outright and trust that either the original installation company or another company could remove the old ones correctly.
- Suppafly 2y ago
  I'm sure some of them are leases, but mostly what I see is that you either buy them, often over a long time with a loan, and keep all the 'profits' or you agree to let the company place them on your roof but they keep most of the 'profits'. The profits generally coming from selling the electricity back to the grid. Leasing them may make financial sense in some situations, like places where you can't sell back to the grid but still use a lot of electricity and the lease price is still less than buying from the grid directly.
Suppafly 2y ago
The solar rollout in my neighborhood has mostly been recent, but I think part of it also depends on the local contractors and your area might just be underserviced still.

pavel_lishin 2y ago

I do know that some companies lease them, which is a bad financial decision for a homeowner - not only do you not own them, which is bad, but the contract stays with the house, which may make it harder to sell. After all, why would I buy a house that's somehow weirdly indebted to some fly-by-might solar installation company I've never heard of ?

digging 2y ago
Wow, yeah. I suppose I can sort of see the motivation, insofar as solar panels have a finite lifespan, the homeowner might think it's better to not be on the hook for handling end-of-life. But in reality, as you say, I would not want to lease them. I would prefer to purchase them outright and trust that either the original installation company or another company could remove the old ones correctly.
Suppafly 2y ago
I'm sure some of them are leases, but mostly what I see is that you either buy them, often over a long time with a loan, and keep all the 'profits' or you agree to let the company place them on your roof but they keep most of the 'profits'. The profits generally coming from selling the electricity back to the grid. Leasing them may make financial sense in some situations, like places where you can't sell back to the grid but still use a lot of electricity and the lease price is still less than buying from the grid directly.

Suppafly 2y ago

The solar rollout in my neighborhood has mostly been recent, but I think part of it also depends on the local contractors and your area might just be underserviced still.