During these tough economics times, many people are looking to save money. We have many bills to pay, not the least of which are our utility bills, including electricity. If you are looking to save money on your electricity bill, your first thought may be to look for the cheapest electricity supplier around. However, it may be that the cheapest electricity that you can get may actually come from installing solar panels.
How can that be? There is an innovative new approach to financing solar panels, called solar leasing, that is being offered by companies such as Solar City and SunRun. These companies will put solar panels on your roof, sometimes without any down payment at all, and then sell you the electricity that they generate, often at a lower price than you are currently paying for electricity. You can estimate how much they will charge you for the electricity produced by their solar panels by using a calculator such as the one found on the Solar City web site.
The best part is that the savings will only increase as electricity prices increase in the future. Since these solar leases allow you to lock in an electricity prices for the next 15 years or so, even if you are paying about the same for that electricity as you would if you just kept paying your electricity supplier now, your savings will grow as electricity prices increase. It’s hard to find anyone who thinks electricity will become less expensive in the future, so why not protect yourself from future price increases by locking in a low rate with a solar lease now?
One limitation is that these companies currently only operate in a handful of states. At the time of writing, Solar City serves customers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Texas, while SunRun serves customers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. However, both companies say that they plan to continue to expand, so perhaps you will see solar leasing available in your state soon, if it is not available already.
