Forgot Password?
Home arrow GreeniacsArticles arrow Energy arrow Solar Challenges
Written by Gregory Iwahashi   
Share |
Tuesday, 01 November 2011

Solar Challenges
Solar power is gaining momentum every day, but is it growing as fast as it should be? Let’s start with solar energy’s market development and growth:
  • From 2000-2009, the number of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules—the devices needed to capture the sunlight and turn it into energy—jumped from 88,000 to over 1.2 million.1
  • Despite being in a recession, the solar market share increased by 67% from 2009 to 2010, yielding an increase of $2.4 billion in annual sales.2
  • Over a hundred companies, 80% of which are less than 10 years old, have flooded the solar market and offer everything from direct panel sales to customized home installations.2
  • From 2009 to 2010, the annual cost of installed photovoltaic systems dropped 8% in the residential sector and 11% in the commercial sector.3
  • Solar has been gaining momentum worldwide, with Germany being the largest market share user of PVs in the world.4
Solar Challenges 5


Furthermore, government backed programs in the United States have created considerable markets in New Jersey, California, and just about any state with a good amount of sun. The 30% federal tax incentive, generous loan guarantees, tax credits, and renewable portfolio standards have all boosted considerable growth in the United States’ solar energy market.6 With little or no upfront cost solar has become an economically advantageous option for homeowners, commercial businesses, and industrial electricity generators.

In the midst of all these growth numbers and success stories comes one glaring question: Do you have solar installed on your home or at your business? Almost certainly all of us have seen a local advertisement or flashing pop-up ad while web surfing, but how many of us actually consider solar an option? Let’s take a look at some of the challenges solar energy faces in becoming mainstream.

Lack of Consumer Knowledge

 As a responsible homeowner I perused a few different websites and really was overwhelmed by the wealth of solar power options, information, and services being offered. While this may be a personal learning curve that I have to overcome, it represents the great disconnect of information from the consumer to the product. The biggest challenge to this day has been educating consumers on what solar can mean for them.7 Many individuals have no idea what options they have in terms of technologies, products or solutions to their energy problems. Similar, with a myriad of installers and reseller’s clogging up any solar related internet search on Google makes it that much less attractive to consumers to pursue. How can individuals know they are getting the best technology or the best service out there? Is this technology even proven to work as effectively or efficiently as promised? Is this technology mature enough to prove itself on my home or business? All of these questions should be answered and debunked before a homeowner can feel at ease with the technology.

To tackle the consumer knowledge issues, we have seen the entry of many solar consulting companies aiming to debunk the mystery of this technology, but more importantly guarantee that the 15 or 20 year contract you are entering is not going to come back and haunt you. Furthermore, state and local NGOs are beginning to make educational guides on how to go about purchasing solar responsibly. Similarly, reports show that 82.9% of companies will be stepping up sales and marketing outreach to counter the lack of customer knowledge regarding the solar industry.8 Companies have assuredly ramped up their efforts to streamline the process and make this industry a service oriented business that does just about every everything from remanufacturing solar panel models to maintaining your installed systems.9

Financing Hurdles

The first question a homeowner or business owner asks themselves is: Can I afford solar? Unfortunately, many solar industry websites encourage interested customers to fill out a laundry list of different information just to get a quote. From that quote comes another round of sizing up that then follows in an audit, and last but not least, the financing options are finally offered. If you are like me and prefer to know your options from the beginning, here are three of the more popular terms I have encountered in the solar market.

Lease option: Similar to leasing a car, annual or monthly payments are made towards the purchase price of the installed solar system. However, in the process the installer takes part of the financial incentives offered and charges interest as well.

Power-Purchase Agreement: For agreeing to lend your top solar-real estate roof or back yard to the solar company, you can get a considerable discount on your monthly energy bills (normally around 15-20%). Additionally, homeowner or business owner installers are in many cases not required to front any money or pay a dime during the 10, 15 or 20 year period. The catch is that normally this rate is set in stone and you are stuck with a solar panel if you decide that you don’t like your rooftop addition.

Ownership option: You outright buy the installed system with either money sitting in the bank or through some type of loan. Many companies offer loans and payback options for those interested in fronting anywhere from $25,000 to upwards of a $100,000. The benefit, however, is that you retain the federal tax credits, reap all the benefits of generating solar power, and have made a capital investment to your property that is tax exempt. The bad news is that maintenance usually becomes your responsibility instead of the solar-installation company’s responsibility.

While flexible financing options exist and customization is a reality, installers are not making this information available to consumers. Additionally, while all three of the discussed financing options exist, the price of a kWh is still the determining factor on whether installing solar will actually save money. If electricity prices drop then it will no longer make solar installations a money saving option, which makes many homeowners hesitant to invest in such a technology.

This year already we have seen Solyndra go bankrupt after huge Federal loans, SolarCity and other companies get huge investment backing, and dropping manufacturing costs. While the solar market as a whole has yet to settle down and find its mainstream equation, the industry is here to stay. With incentives, costs, installers, and options for literally any sized project, the time to act is now!

Browse all Greeniacs Articles Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________

1 http://205.254.135.24/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/solarphotv/solarpv.html
2 http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/03/u-s-solar
-market-bloom-in-2010-but-challenges-remain
3 Id.
4 http://www.epia.org/fileadmin/EPIA_docs/public/Global_
Market_Outlook_for_Photovoltaics_until_2014.pdf
5 http://solarbuzz.com/sites/default/files/pv-market-size-region.gif
6 http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/03/
u-s-solar-market-bloom-in-2010-but-challenges-remain
7 http://www.altenergymag.com/emagazine.php?art_id=1426
8 Id.
9 www.esolar.com/power_engineering.pdf




Add your comment
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Click here to Register.  Click here to login.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 November 2011 )

SEARCH GREENIACS.COM

Green Facts

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.