Video of Cary Hayes from REC Solar explain what will need to happen for solar to hit critical mass.
This is an interview I did with Cary Hayes of REC Solar.
SolarDave: In the residential market to be similar to Germany where many people have solar panels, to hit that critical mass does the payback need to be around two or three years?
Cary Hayes: Obviously the faster the payback the more people are going use it. The 10 year payback number is the initial crossover point, start attracting not necessarily super green folks who are motivated by environmental reasons because now you start to attracting very financial oriented folks.
We are seeing to see this today in both residential and commercial markets in this country as well as Colorado. For example we are standing in a Costco. Costco Wholesale is buying large scale solar systems in some of their stores from REC Solar. They are doing that to fix their cost of power.
They also realize they are going to be saving a significantly by going this. We have seen a lot of big box retailers and Fortune 500 companies now starting to get solar, WalMart, Kohl’s, Macy’, Best Buy – so you are starting to see a wide spread adoption now in the big Fortune 500 companies of America. You see that is a clear message that the financials work.
[Side note: Cary Hayes used to be investment manager, stockbroker at Smith Barney in Chicago, and trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange]
SolarDave: In a store like this (Costco) with around 100,000 sq. ft. which is pretty typical and you fill the roof with 100,000 sq. ft. of panels would you be generating more power than what this Costco would be using?
Cary Hayes: For this particular Costco from the projects we have done, if you fill a Costco store roof with panels, we are offsetting the power demand use by about half or 60%. They use a lot of power. They have tons of lights even with the skylights, lots of lights and TV’s and electronics.
They are motivated by a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons is financial. They know we have a fix cost of power at 10 cents a kilo watt for the next 20 years. That might be a little bit more expensive than it is today but they paid a little more in up front costs but they have hedged themselves against long term huge increases.
